pileofcrapola

There are a number of ways people might attempt to get out of a traffic ticket: crying, apologizing profusely, or politely requesting a warning, just to name a few. But one thing you definitely should never do is call in a fake robbery at the local Taco Bell, because that will only end with more tickets and a felony arrest warrant.

The Chicago Sun Times reports that a suburban Chicago man allegedly called in a false armed robbery attempt at a nearby Taco Bell in the hopes he would get out of a traffic ticket.

According to authorities, officers responded to the local fast food joint after receiving the robbery report only to learn that no robbery had taken place and the call was apparently bogus.

Detectives eventually traced the number used to make the false report to a 25-year-old man who had been pulled over near the restaurant at about the same time the robbery was reported.

The man allegedly made the false report hoping the officer who stopped him would have to respond to the robbery, letting him out of the ticket.

Instead, the man was still issued several citations and was later charged with one count of attempted disorderly conduct for making a false police report.

Calling in fake Taco Bell robbery to avoid ticket doesn’t quite work out [Chicago Sun Times]

Have you been keeping a close eye on your joint piggy bank? Or perhaps you’ve got your very own credit card you keep separate from your significant other, the one you use to buy the things you don’t want to admit to (season 5 of that awful reality TV show, a giant wheel of cheese, etc.). You aren’t the only financial cheater — a new survey says there are a whole bunch of us taking financial matters to motels that charge by the hour, so to speak.

A survey by CreditCards.com says 7.2 million Americans have a secret credit card or bank account they hide from their partner, and 20% of us have hidden a purchase of over $500 or more from that special someone.

Men are a bit worse than women, with around 4.4 million hiding accounts and 26% of them spending more than $500 without telling their spouse or live-in partner.

You’re more likely to spend in secret if you’re in the $50,000-$74,999 household income range, and if you’re between the ages of 18 and 29, according to the survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

And perhaps because the fellas are doing the financial cheating more often, 31% of men said they’re totally cool with their significant other spending more than $500 without telling them, compared to the only 18% of women who wouldn’t be bothered by it.

“These secrets are a recipe for disaster,” says Matt Schulz, CreditCards.com’s senior industry analyst. “If you and your significant other aren’t honest with each other about what you’re spending, you never really know how much money you have and that can lead to big problems.”

Others would prefer to keep a tight rein on household budgets, with 31% of Americans saying their loved one shouldn’t be able to spend more than $100 without coughing up the truth.

“Make sure that someone owns the apartment they’re making available for rent” seems like a completely batty consumer warning, but unfortunately it is also a necessary one. People in Sacramento say that they handed hundreds of dollars each over to a woman advertising rooms for rent on Craigslist, only to discover that she’d rented the same space out to multiple people, and didn’t own it in the first place.

CBS Sacramento spoke to several people who rented rooms in a house in the city of Sacramento. Well, they thought they had rented rooms. One man gave the purported landlord $950 in cash to rent two rooms, which was all of the money he had on hand. When he went to the house, he discovered multiple people claiming that they had all rented the same room. His prospective housemates gave the woman less money as deposits, but said that she seemed credible.

Who owns a property is a matter of public record, and you can find that information from the county or city government. It may not be online, but a trip to the county hall of records that saves you hundreds of dollars is worthwhile. In Sacramento, for example, you can look up a property record on a county web site. People here in Consumerist’s ancestral home of Yonkers, NY can look up properties on a site for the city. A simple Google search of [town/city name] property search will get you to the information you need.

Call Kurtis: Half a Dozen People Rented My Apartment [CBS Sacramento]

Sometimes doing it yourself is just not the best way to go about things, especially when it involves taking a bulldozer to the family home without telling your significant other. A New York man is likely in a deep pile of excrement after his wife arrived home to find he’d destroyed the house, citing a “bad foundation.”

According to police in Middletown, N.Y., officers arrived at a property apparently owned by a 48-year-old man’s wife to find him using an excavator to take the house apart, reports the Associated Press.

And he apparently didn’t have time to remove household items like furniture, food and personal stuff in any kind of careful manner, instead chucking everything into a large construction garbage bin.

Then there’s the issue of the man neglecting to dial up utility companies to cancel all the services that should be stopped before such a major undertaking, like gas, electric and water. Crews turned everything off after police alerted them to the issue.

He reportedly told cops the house had to go because it had a bad foundation, and has been charged with criminal mischief.

Police: New York man demolishes home without telling wife [Associated Press]

Two years ago, a Federal Trade Commission study found a surprisingly large percentage of consumers had discovered, and had corrected, errors on their credit reports. There were also several people who believed there were errors with their reports but had not yet reached a resolution. A new follow-up study from the FTC finds that nearly 70% of these disputes from 2012 are still unresolved.

The updated report [PDF] focuses on those consumers who participated in the 2012 study and who believed at the time they had at least one unresolved error on their reports.

Of the 121 people in the study, 84 (69.4%) say they are still disputing that same error they challenged two years earlier. And the credit bureaus may end up winning this battle by attrition, with half of these consumers planning to abandon their fight, compared to 45% who say they intend to keep fighting.

Elsewhere in the updated report, the FTC says that around 1% of those consumers who had their credit report modified after after resolving a dispute ended up coming across that same error again when it subsequently popped up on a different report.

Back in 2012, the FTC study found that 26% of study respondents had at least one inaccurate piece of information on one of their three credit reports.

That study also found that about 20% of consumers who identified errors on one of their three credit reports experienced an increase in their credit score when their reports were reissued without the error. This resulted in a decrease in their credit risk tier, making it easier for them to obtain a lower interest loan.

FTC Issues Follow-Up Study on Credit Report Accuracy [FTC]

CHANTILLY, Va. – Fans of the TV show Star Trek are in for a treat.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is hosting an open house event and the museum will display the original starship “Enterprise.”

“We’re expecting some enthusiasts to show up,” explains Malcolm Collum, Chief Conservator at the National Air and Space Museum.

Conservation specialists are doing some touch-up work on the prop, which was the original model featured on Star Trek.

It sits on a wooden stand in a conservation lab at the museum.

“To have this thing in the lab is really pretty special,” Collum says.

The open house is an event that showcases how artifacts are cared for at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.  Visitors can go through rooms that are normally off-limits.

“It is the only day of the year that we open our behind the scenes area,” says Anne McCombs, a restoration expert.

The open house runs from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. this coming Saturday.

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Fairfax County Animal Watch Washington Post The following incident was reported by the Animal Control Division of the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. Owner charged: Old Chatwood Pl., 13600 block, 10:30 p.m. Jan. 9. An officer found a dog outside a residence ... and more »

WASHINGTON — Residents of an Arlington, Virginia, neighborhood are nervous after two dogs had to be taken to a hospital — and it looks like they were intentionally poisoned.

Signs on light posts in the neighborhood of North Columbus and 23rd streets read “Warning: Someone is poisoning dogs in our area,” ABC7 reports.

A five-year-old Chihuahua-dachsund mix named Bonnie ate what looked like a sausage during a walk on Sunday morning, her owner Scott Kaye tells ABC7. Soon after, he had to rush Bonnie to the hospital, where he learned she was the second dog from her block to be poisoned.

Neighbors received emails warning them about the poisonings.

A search of the neighborhood turned up numerous chunks of sausage stuffed with pills on North Columbus Street, between 22nd and 26th streets, ABC7 says.

They add that the substance in the pills is being tested. If it can be determined that the sausage was poisoned intentionally, whoever did it may face animal cruelty charges.

See a report from ABC7:

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Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks, who won the NFC championship and will play in the Super Bowl. While it’s great that the team is posting celebratory tweets, they proceeded to tie the team’s victory over the Green Bay Packers in with the holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. What could possibly go wrong with that idea?

We missed the tweet, since at least the team had the good sense to delete it when the backlash started. Fortunately, alert person Drew Olanoff got an iPhone screen shot before that happened.

As always happens when a brand posts a tweet that doesn’t go over well, the Seahawks posted an apology for comparing the end of legal racial segregation to winning a football game.

We haven’t seen any inappropriate brand promotions or tweets, but that doesn’t mean that no brands have made any missteps. If you spot any, send them to us so we can share with the world..

Seahawks Follow Up Their Big Win With a Bigger Fail: a ‘We Shall Overcome’ MLK Tweet [AdWeek]

Several North Arlington neighborhoods are abuzz today with reports of possible dog poisonings.

The reports have been making their way around neighborhood listservs, the popular Mothers of North Arlington listserv, local pet-related mailing lists and social media. Numerous emails have been forwarded to ARLnow.com.

According to various reports, at least two dogs have gotten sick since Sunday after eating “raw sausages” stuffed with pills, which had been left along sidewalks in the area around N. Columbus Street, north of Lee Highway. It’s not known what exactly was in the sausages, nor who’s leaving them on the ground.

The Animal Welfare League of Arlington has investigated the reports and recovered one such sausage, according to spokeswoman Kerry McKeel. That sausage is being sent for toxicology testing, which might take a couple of days. The 2200-2600 block of N. Columbus Street was the focal point of AWLA’s investigation.

McKeel could not confirm reports of one of the sick dogs being in “critical condition.”

“We talked to all the vet emergency rooms and we only have two confirmed cases,” she said. One dog was “released today and is doing fine.” No word yet on the other.

Dog owners should be extra vigilant about what their dogs might try to ingest while out on walks, according to AWLA.

“At this point we’re telling people to be cautious when walking their dog and to be cognizant of anything they’re eating,” said McKeel. “It’s unclear if this is a case of intentional poisoning or something else.”

Reached via phone this afternoon, a police spokesman referred reporters to AWLA.

McKeel said the last known incident of intentional dog poisonings in Arlington was about 10 years ago, when someone put tainted dog treats in a dog park.

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A bipartisan effort to repeal an A-F grading scale for entire schools is advancing in the General Assembly.

The A-F scale for schools was adopted in 2013 at the urging of then-Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, as a public measure of school quality based on student test scores.

But the law was never implemented. The 2014 legislature delayed it two years.

On a 3-2 vote Monday, a Senate subcommittee endorsed Sen. Richard Black’s bill to abolish the A-F scale entirely. A similar measure is pending in the House of Delegates.

Black, a Loudoun County Republican, said he initially supported the grading scale but has become convinced that an F grade would stigmatize a school’s students and make it hard to recruit teachers. Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration supports repeal.

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Summer and winter are polar opposites in the outdoor environment. While the summer days can, at times, reach triple digits, blasting cold can be intense during the winter. Some animals, such as squirrels and raccoons, have methods of hiding from the cold, but other animals, such as cats, struggle more. Identifying and telling the difference between feral and stray cats will help you greatly in determining how to best approach and help them during any weather condition.

Steps

Identifying Cats

1. Know the definition of a stray cat. Lost or abandoned cats who still hold any domesticated characteristics will most likely be a stray. Depending on the degree range, a cat will quickly approach a human who offers food or be afraid, but will show a small interest over time.
   
2. Know the definition of a feral cat. Feral cats have lived a huge part of their lives in the outdoor world and have no domesticated habits. These cats will shun humans however they can.
   
3. Watch the cat's interactions with other animals. Feral cats tend to create groups of their own, also known as colonies, while stray cats will roam and live by themselves.
   
4. Analyze the body language. Feral cats will stray away from body communication, especially the eyes. Stray cats will be more apt to look directly at humans. Hissing, striking, and growling are common defense tactics used by feral cats, while strays tend to be more quiet in defending themselves, from small meows to low hissing.
5. Observe the environment during the day and night. Both stray and feral cats tend to hang out where food can easily be found: near dumpsters, restaurants, abandoned structures, or under porches. Because strays retain some domesticated behavior, they can been seen more often during the day. Feral cats, on the other hand, are nocturnal and tend to come out of their hiding places for food runs during the night.

Helping Feral Cats

1. Avoid hesitating to help a cat. Whether a cat is found to be stray or feral, both need the support of humans in their own way.
2. Seek experienced help if trapping a feral cat. Because of how wild and untamed feral cats are and their reactions to humans, it's best not to trap them yourself.
3. Research and call a local cat organization that performs "TNR". TNR stands for "Trap-Neuter-Return", which is simply trapping the cats, neutering them, and returning the cats to their original "home area".
   
4. Consider making a homemade shelter for feral cats. If you know a colony resides in the vicinity, get friends or neighbors to help you construct one or several "homes". Leftover lumber or small dog houses are most convenient and may be the easiest resources to find. Remember the bigger the house is, the less body heat is retained in the house. Straw is the recommended bedding material and don't forget to lay out food and water nearby.^[1]

Helping Stray Cats

1. Use a trap to most effectively catch stray cats. To avoid injuries to both yourself and the cat, you should never handle them with your bare hands, even if you have been nurturing it for a while. Choose to use bait, such as cat food or white chicken meat to lure the cat into the trap.
2. Keep the timing in mind when planning your catch. If you are planning to visit a veterinarian within 12 hours, you may keep the cat in the cage or trap during that time. Using this method will eliminate the need to release the cat and then have to re-trap it. If the veterinarian visit is planned for a time that is further in the future, designate a closed, warm space in your house and provide food and water for the time being. Suitable areas might be the basement or a quiet, unused room.
3. Request that the veterinarian check for a possible microchip. At the size of a grain of rice, microchips sit just underneath the skin between the shoulder blades. Scanning a microchip provides contact information about the animal owner.
4. Think of creating lost and found notices. Craigslist, weekly newspapers, or social media sites are great ways to reach out to the community. Add a picture of the cat, a specific description, and include the area where you found the cat.
5. Consider putting the stray cat up for adoption. Many animal shelters are typically loaded with animals, and non-adopted ones are usually put to sleep after some time to avoid overpopulation. Many people will put up a re-homing fee; this is to help ensure the cat will be going to a safe and loving home.
6. Consider adopting the cat yourself. Taking stray cats off the street is a great alternative for pet adoption rather than using pet stores or shelters.
7. Help your cat adapt to the new home environment. Your home environment may have a lot of obstacles and conditions the cat either may adapt after several months or years, or not at all. Some obstacles that are typically more difficult to overcome are young children and existing pets, especially dogs. High levels of patience are required and it helps if you are able to provide a dedicated room for the cat the first few months.
8. Provide lots of encouragement for the cat. This helps the cat adjust to new territory and will likely pay off in the end by establishing a warm relationship.
   

Warnings

• Cats are incredibly cute and playful, and they are among the most adored and loved animals in the world. Because of that it’s easy to overlook the extremely negative effects feral cats have on the environment. Cats are one of the world's most efficient predators, killing for kicks and who have hunted some rare species into extinction) It is estimated that cats kill 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds in the U.S. each year and cats are the leading cause of bird deaths in the U.S. Also it’s estimated that the cats also kill 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals, which include rabbits, squirrels, shrews and voles, in addition to mice and rats. Based on data from other countries, they think cats may kill 95 to 299 million amphibians and 258 to 822 million reptiles in the U.S. each year. What seems to be humane for feral cats is inhumane for nearly every natural species of animal near them.
• Feral female cats will give birth to feral kittens. These cats will go through puberty usually at 8 to 10 months old, and give birth to one to five babies after just 9 weeks — and can get pregnant again while still nursing the new litter. With their quick reproduction cycle and natural street smarts, it's easy to see why experts estimate there are 70 million or more feral cats in the U.S. alone. Spaying and neutering seems like a good solution but spayed or neutered cats are still killing machines and only a very small percentage of the feral cat population can ever be trapped.
• Feral cats are a frequent source of animal-transmitted, serious diseases such as rabies, toxoplasmosis, and plague. These cats account for the most cases of human rabies exposure among domestic animals, and are the source for one-third of rabies post-exposure treatments in the United States. Because of inconsistent incident reporting, that number is likely an underestimate of the actual cases of rabies exposure. Trap, neuter, and release (TNR) programs may lead to increased, un-inoculated populations of cats that can serve as a source of transmittable serious diseases. A 1988 study showed rabies has been detected more frequently in cats than in dogs; in 2008, the number of cats detected with rabies was four times higher than dogs. In 2010, rabies cases declined for all domestic animals except cats, which comprised 62 percent of all rabies cases for domestic animals.

Related wikiHows

• How to Know if a Cat Is a Stray
• How to Be Qualified to Rescue an Animal
• How to Provide Help for Homeless Pets

Sources and Citations

• https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/cat-behavior/stray-and-feral-cats - Research source
• http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/feral_cats/tips/caring_feral_cats_winter.html

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WASHINGTON — According to first responders, the best place to be in a Metro emergency is on the train.

“Follow the direction of the train operator,” Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesman Pete Piringer says. “Sheltering in place is the safest place for you and for first responders to get to you.”

While you are on a Metro train, Metro advises riders to become aware of the safety features found throughout the train, notably the intercoms, fire extinguishers and emergency doors.

“If you are a regular commuter, you should be familiar with the platforms where you enter and exit,” Piringer advises. “You should know where you are along the way, so in the event you become stranded and you have to call for help, you know where you are.”

If you see an issue, Piringer recommends you contact the train operator through the intercom available at either end of the train.

“If you think you’ve waited a longer than reasonable amount of time, we want you to call 911 and advise us of where you are,” added Piringer.

Metro says abandoning a train in a tunnel without a trained professional is extremely risky.  They recommend you stay in place and follow operator instructions unless the threat is imminent.

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WASHINGTON — If blondes really do have more fun, Rosie should be having a blast! Sadly, this beautiful 3-year-old husky mix is actually feeling a bit blue.

She arrived at the Washington Animal Rescue League recently because her owner was moving to a place where pets aren’t allowed and she’s obviously confused about her current situation. But Rosie remains hopeful that someone will love her again. At 3 years old, she’s at that perfect age: past the destructive puppy stage but still energetic and playful.

She likes people and other dogs and would like nothing better than a home where someone will give her attention, affection, and exercise. Could that be you?

About WARL: Founded in 1914, the Washington Animal Rescue League is the oldest animal shelter in Washington D.C. Its mission includes rescuing, rehabilitating and finding homes for animals who have no where else to go. The League also supports animals through affordable veterinary care, community outreach and education. Learn more about the Washington Animal Rescue League at www.warl.org.

If you are thinking of adding a furry friend to your family, check out these other great shelters in the area.

 

Maryland

Humane Society of Charles County

(301) 645-8181

71 Industrial Park Dr. PO Box 1015 Waldorf, Md. 20604

Humane Society of Charles County offers a low cost spay/neuter program to the public. Please call or visit our website for more information. The shelter is also looking for more foster parents to help its animals.

Prince George’s County Humane Society
(301) 262-5625
P.O. Box 925 Bowie, Md. 20718

Prince George’s County Humane Society is also looking for foster parents. For more information, contact the organization.

PAW – Partnership for Animal Welfare
(301) 572-4729
P.O. Box 1074 Greenbelt, Md. 20768

Paws Animal Kingdom
(301) 920-2318
P.O. Box 11531 Takoma Park, Md. 20912

Montgomery County Humane Society
(240) 773-5960
14645 Rothgeb Dr. Rockville, Md. 20850

The Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County
(301) 740-2511
12 Park Ave. Gaithersburg, Md. 20877

D.C.

Washington Humane Society
(202) 576-6664
1201 New York Ave. NE 20002

ASAP – Alliance for Stray Animals and People
(202) 331-1330
P.O. Box 65438 Washington, D.C. 20035-5438

Metropolitan Guinea Pig Rescue
(202) 575-2210
Approved applicants may attend monthly adoption meets that are usually held at the house of a volunteer in either Northern Virginia or Southern Maryland.

Lucky Dog Animal Rescue
(202) 741-5428
Lucky Dog is a foster home organization and does not run a dedicated housing facility.

Northern Virginia

A Forever Home
(703) 961-8690
A Forever-Home is a non-profit dog rescue group that operates in the Northern Virginia/Washington Metropolitan area.

Lab Rescue of L.R.C.P.
(301) 299-6756
Lab Rescue of the LRCP is a volunteer driven, non-profit organization that rescues, fosters and places homeless, abused, and/or abandoned Labrador Retrievers.

FOHA – Friends of Homeless Animals
(703) 385-0224
All visitors must speak to a Friends representative prior to receiving directions to their shelter location.

SPCA of Northern Virginia
P.O. Box 100220 Arlington, Va. 22210-3220

Animal Welfare League of Alexandria
(703) 746-4774
4101 Eisenhower Ave. Alexandria, Va. 22304

Animal Welfare League of Arlington
(703) 931-9241
2650 S. Arlington Mill Dr. Arlington, Va.

Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation
(703) 295-3647
P.O. Box 223953 Chantilly, Va. 20153

HART – Homeless Animal Rescue Team
(703) 691-HART
P.O. Box 7261 Fairfax Station, Va. 22039-7261

King Street Cats Rescue and Adoption
(703) 231-7199
25 Dove St. Alexandria, Va. 22314

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In the Recall Roundup for January, defective candles risk burning people and property, a coffeemaker sprays hot water somewhere other than the coffee grounds, and flammable and drawstring-laden children’s clothes made it to stores despite bans on both. Oh, and a toy monkey melts its own battery compartment.

Babies & Kids
IKEA VYSSA crib mattresses – Mattress can separate from side of crib, creating a space where a child’s head can become trapped. Two incidents where this happened have been reported, but neither child was injured.
Star Ride Kids Pajama Sets – do not meet flammability standards
Kids Gaelic Athletic Association Fleece Panel Hoodies – Has banned drawstrings; poses strangulation hazard to children
Ski-Doo and Can-Am Kids’ Hoodies – Has banned drawstrings; poses strangulation hazard to children
Kiddie Korral Girls Hoodies with Ponies – Has banned drawstrings; poses strangulation hazard to children

Home
WindowTex Custom Roller Shades – Shades may fall from the mounting bracket. Six cases have been reported, but no falling shades have injured users.
NPD Furniture Abby Dining Chair – Chair legs may unexpectedly break. There have been four reports to the CPSC of broken chair legs.
DD Brand Candles (Hobby Lobby) - This recall has been expanded. The candle flame burns very high and can ignite the wax on the surface of the candle.
Olympic Mountain Products Tealight Wax Warmers – Flame burns erratically and too high, which is a fire hazard. Two people have sustained minor burns, and another fire caused minor property damage.
Keurig MINI Plus Coffee Machines – may burn consumers by spraying hot water at them. There have been 200 reports of hot water spraying out of the brewer, and about 90 burns reported.
Comfort Research Vinyl Bean Bag Chairs – Children can crawl inside and suffocate. No incidents reported.

Toys
Gift Gallery Moody Face Stress Balls (Sold at Wegmans)- May break into pieces when squeezed, which defeats the point.
Giggles International Animated Monkey Toy (Sold at Cracker Barrel) – Battery may overheat, posing a fire hazard. There have been two reports of batteries overheating and melting their compartments.

Vehicles
Yamaha YZ250 Competition Off-Road Motorcycles – Engine may lock up during operation. There have been no reported injuries.

Sports & Outdoors
Pro Performance SKLZ Resistance Trainers – A weld can break, causing the belt to snap back and injure an exercise partner. There have been three reports of serious injuries after this happened to users.

The Anne Arundel County Police Gang Unit has saved a number of pit bulls from freezing in the woods, after they were found tethered to posts and malnourished.

One pit bull was already dead on the premises, frozen to the ground, police said.

According to a press release Friday night, a search warrant was executed at the 7800 block of Freetown Road, Glen Burnie. Police did not say what the warrant was for, and who it was served to.

But five dogs were discovered alive in the wooded area behind the homes in the residential area.  They had no food or water. Anne Arundel County Animal Control Officers removed the animals to a shelter and named the dogs: Hurricane (3-4-year-old), Blizzard (1-year-old ), Whirlwind (10-month-old), Tsunami (1-year-old) and Tornado (2-3-year-old ).

The dogs are currently not available for adoption due to their circumstances and health, according to police, but may be in the future, “barring any unforeseen complications.”

The Anne Arundel County Police is asking for help in identifying the owners of the abandoned dogs. Anyone with information is urged to contact Animal Control 410-222-8900 or the Anne Arundel County Police Anonymous Tip Line at 410-222-4700.

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This is a sponsored post by veterinarian Elizabeth Arguelles, owner of Just Cats Clinic at Lake Anne Plaza. She writes weekly on Reston Now.

Cats have sensitive ears and can suffer from a variety of ear problems throughout the ear as a result. Ear issues can occur in any of the four major parts of the ear: the pinnae or the outer ears sitting on the top of the head, the external ear canal, and the middle ear and inner ear. In this article, we examine some of the more common problems associated with each part of the ear. As always, if you suspect any ear problems in your cat, contact your veterinarian for an exam.

Issues affecting the pinnae or outer ears

Wounds or external trauma: By far the most common problems affecting the pinnae are wounds. In the majority of cases, these cuts, scrapes or scratches are a result of fights with other cats. Occasionally, however, your kitty can inflict these wounds to itself when scratching its head.

Fortunately, most of these external traumas are minor in nature. If a bite or scratch is deep enough, though, it can tear all the way through the pinna creating a greater risk for infection, and if deep enough maybe even sutures. With any noticeable cut or scratch on the outer ear, have your veterinarian examine the ear. Abscesses can develop and cause considerable pain to your cat and require immediate medical attention.

Hematomas: Hematoma is a term used to describe a large blood-filled swelling caused by the rupture of a small vessel just under the skin. Though seen more commonly in dogs, hematomas can occur in cats as well. Like wounds, they are usually the result of external trauma, sometimes from fights and sometimes from the cat itself when it scratches its ear too violently. Your vet will determine the underlying cause of the issue and recommend treatment options. In more severe cases, minor surgery may be needed to correct the issue.

Feline scabies: Scabies is a skin disease caused by an infestation of tiny mites. It is fairly common on the ears where the cat has less fur to protect it from parasites. Scabies can cause severe irritation and itching, and is also characterized by hair loss. Your veterinarian will take a skin scrape of the ear and examine it under a microscope to confirm diagnosis. Treatment typically involves isolation from other animals within the household and prescription based shampoo and ointments.

Issues affecting the external ear canal

Ear mites: Ear mites are one of the most common causes of ear infections in cats and are unfortunately very contagious. They can easily spread from one cat to another, making them harder to eradicate.

Fortunately, ear mites are easy to identify, even sometimes being visible to the naked eye as white specks that occasionally move. Like scabies, ear mites cause severe itching. As a result, an affected cat will often shake its head because the skin lining the ear canals has become inflamed. There will also typically be dark, wax-like discharge coming from the ears.

Even if ear mites are suspected, a diagnosis will be confirmed by your veterinarian by skin scrape. Treatment is typically simple involving topical medications. It’s important to remember that you will need to launder any bed spreads, cat beds, or any other fabric in your home.

Bacterial infections: These are often the byproduct of some of the other ear problems listed here, such as ear mites, foreign bodies or trauma, but bacterial ear infections can also occur without any of those underlying causes. When your kitty gets a bacterial or fungal infection, pus forms in the ear canal and emits a very strong odor. Depending on how deep the infection is within the ear or how painful your cat may be, you vet may recommend sedation so your cat will be more comfortable. Based on the type of bacteria, antibiotics will typically be recommended.

Foreign bodies: Though not as common, foreign bodies might get stuck in your cat’s ear canal. This usually causes sudden and severe pain, so an affected kitty will often hold its head to one side. Getting the foreign body out might be tricky and uncomfortable for your kitty, so your vet will likely recommend sedation. Prescriptions medications may be needed to help with any infection or inflammation.

Tumors: Cats, usually seniors, can occasionally develop tumors in the lining of the ear canal. Though they can be benign polyps, these tumors could be malignant. It is important to diagnose and treat this issue promptly. Your vet will likely need to sedate your cat in order to do a full examination of the ear canal and to obtain a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.

Issues affecting the middle ear and inner ear:

We have grouped these two parts of the ear together because the middle ear and inner ear are so close together that a disease affecting one tends to affect the other as well. Because the middle and inner ears help regulate balance, issues in this part of your cat’s body are often characterized by shaky balance. Other symptoms include tilting the head to one side, “sea walking,” or walking with a lean to the affected side.

Diagnosing middle ear diseases varies depending on the suspected problem. Your veterinarian might take an x-ray or, in more serious cases, recommend a CT scan to assess the condition of the middle ears. Sometimes an anesthetized exam will be necessary to look deeper into the ear canal.

 Middle ear infections: Seen more often in kittens than in adult cats, these infections generally occur when bacteria travel through the small tube that connects the nose to the middle ear. Sometimes, however, a middle ear infection can result from an upper respiratory infection. Strong-smelling discharge, redness and loss of balance are some of the symptoms associated with this infection. To diagnose it, your veterinarian will examine the inside of your cat’s ears with an otoscope. Once it is determined that this is the cause, your vet will typically prescribe a course of antibiotics.

Polyps: Benign polyps can develop in a kitty’s middle ear or on the Eustachian tube that connect the nasal passages to the ear. This can affect cats at any age, but it is most commonly seen in young adults. Unfortunately, the cause of these benign growths remains unknown. Depending on the location of the polyp your veterinarian might suggest surgical removal.

The post How to Know What’s Wrong With Your Cat’s Ears appeared first on WTOP.

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — One of two women charged with killing two children while performing what they thought was an exorcism has pleaded guilty in the case, but she won’t be serving prison time.

The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office says 22-year-old Monifa Sanford of Germantown pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder under a plea agreement.

Under the agreement, approved by Montgomery County Judge Cheryl McCally, Sanford was found not criminally responsible and will be committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Prosecutors say Sanford and Zakieya Avery, the mother of the two children killed, told investigators that they believed evil spirits moved successively between the bodies of the children, ages 1 and 2, and that an exorcism was needed to drive the demons out.

The post Prosecutors: Woman pleads guilty in 2 kids’ exorcism deaths appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — “I enjoy killing.” That sentence would help satisfy a writing assignment given to children at a Germantown middle school for two reasons.

The sentence contains a gerund, and the topic of the assignment was for kids to describe how they would kill their teacher.

“The teacher was trying to make the assignment engaging and connect it to Halloween,” Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Dana Tofig tells WTOP.

As first reported by the Washington Post, the teacher at Kingsview Middle School wanted the assignment to “be an engaging way to review grammar concepts.”

In an email to WTOP, Tofig says the teacher “used poor judgment and made a mistake. She apologized. The event occurred 3 months ago and there have been no further issues.”

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The post In writing assignment, teacher asked students how they would kill her appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — There’s a new meat making its way onto the plates of Americans — only it isn’t new at all. It’s thought to have been one of the earliest domesticated animals, and it’s a staple protein in several cuisines and cultures around the world, but for many Americans, goat is new.

Jeff Tunks hopes the red meat isn’t a novelty for too long. The executive chef and owner of Passion Food Hospitality is confident that with a little help from his house-made corn tortillas, he can introduce goat to the masses with his Jalisco-style roasted goat tacos at Fuego Cocina y Tequileria.

And Tunks isn’t the only chef in the D.C. area putting goat on the menu. Mike Isabella serves spiced baby goat with savoy cabbage, black-eyed peas and red pepper at Kapnos and a wood-roasted spiced baby goat sandwich at G Sandwich Shop. And at The Fainting Goat, on U Street, diners can try a curried goat po-boy or a plate of gnocci covered in a goat Bolognese. Berkeley, California’s, renowned Chez Panisse and Chicago’s Girl and the Goat also embrace the meat, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The United States Department of Agriculture says goat consumption is on the rise in the U.S. In 1984, the agency, which is responsible for inspecting all meat slaughtered for sale, inspected 107,299 goats. In 2010, that number jumped to 779,000.

Tunks says many factors are driving the consumption of goat. For starters, goat meat is higher in protein than pork, lamb and chicken, and it’s more than 50 percent lower in fat than beef and about 40 percent lower in saturated fat than chicken. Calorie-wise, goat is on par with chicken, but contains significantly fewer calories than beef, pork and lamb.

“Finally, people are realizing it’s nutritious; it’s one of the best proteins for you. It’s low in calories, low in fat,” Tunks says.

More meat-eaters are also trying goat is for sustainability reasons. Tunks says that while farmers can raise about two cattle per acre of land, they can raise about 10 goats per acre.

“Plus, they’re like nature’s lawn mowers,” he says.  “So they’re easy to raise, they’re sustainable, they’re easy on the land, and I think people are realizing it’s more of a viable option as opposed to cattle or sheep or pork.”

And the options for cooking with goat are endless.

“I think it’s very versatile,” says Tunks, who adds that goat is common in many Middle Eastern, Caribbean and Latin American cultures, so it can easily adapt to myriad flavors.  “You could apply it with Asian flavor profiles, with Middle Eastern flavor profiles, with Indian flavor profiles.”

For his Jalisco-style roasted goat tacos, Tunks applies a chile de arbol rub to the meat and slowly braises the hind quarters of the goat for about three hours.

“And so the meat’s very tender, very succulent,” he says. “We serve it with a simple diced white onion and cilantro and then a trio of sauces.”

Tunks gets two goats a week delivered to his restaurant from a farmer in Pennsylvania, but he says the meat can be found at area farmers markers or specialty halal markets. And, he says, it’s relatively easy to prepare at home.

“If you get more of a shoulder or leg cuts, I think a slow braise, like lamb shank or a veal osso buco, would be the best. If you’re getting chops or loin, I think even grilling it, like you would a lamb kabob or a lamb chop, would be great,” Tunks says.

“I think it’s just about us experiencing it and being aware of it and those sorts of things.”

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The post Nutritious, sustainable, tasty: The meat you should eat in 2015 appeared first on WTOP.

Here in the United States, we’ve been solving the problem of how to re-develop our dead and dying malls into something beneficial to communities and to businesses. Over in Thailand, though, a former mall took a strange turn before being completely demolished. The building filled with water, forming a pond, and local residents stocked that pond with fish to keep mosquito infestations down.

The mall was flooded in the first place because the developer defied its original building permit, building an 11-story mall when they had only been given permission to build a four-story one. The mall closed and the city government in Bangkok tore down the seven illicit floors on the mall, leaving the rest of the building in place…with no roof. The first floor flooded, and a business owner in the neighborhood explains that locals stocked the pond with fish about ten years ago to prevent mosquitoes from hatching in the big expanse of uncovered, still water. The fish multiplied in their strange, illegal semi-indoor aquarium.

A travel blogger wrote about the mall in 2013, posting stunning photos, taking pains to point out that tourists should not go there. People kept visiting and locals continued to feed the fish, and the city finally ordered the building demolished.

Authorities estimate that there are about 3,000 fish inside. Now that their home is being torn down, workers from the federal and provincial government are catching the thousands of fish in nets, and they will be held in quarantine before being released into appropriate streams and reservoirs. It’s not clear whether they will be able to survive in the wild, but at least someone is taking the care to remove them.

Fish pulled from New World pond [Bangkok Post] (via The Verge)
The Secret Of The Abandoned Fish Mall [A Taste of the Road]

The children of the ’80s are now adults with jobs, who have occasional disposable income between student loan payments. Makers of sugary breakfast cereals are capitalizing on this, re-releasing our childhood favorites for us to eat as snacks or inflict on our own children. That’s why Strawberry Honeycomb is back on shelves in some areas to tempt the nostalgia-stricken.

Strawberry Honeycomb debuted in 1983, and was taken off the market…well, no one seems to know when it was taken off the market, including Post in its own press release. We would guess sometime in the ’90s. Now Post wants us to know that it’s back in “select” stores. Which stores those are isn’t clear, since the company directs customers to a product finder that doesn’t yet list strawberry as a valid Honeycomb flavor. At the same time, the flavor isn’t on their “discontinued products” page, either, leaving it in a strange cereal limbo.

Strawberry Honeycomb follows General Mills’ French Toast Crunch back onto the shelves and into the cabinets of cereal-loving millennials.

(Thanks to Brand Eating for the heads-up!)

Yes, buying items in bulk definitely saves money, but what if you don’t use five gallons of milk per week? If you have the storage space in your freezer, it can be a good way to save trips to the store and get even more savings out of your membership to a bulk-buying club like BJ’s or Costco.

I get home milk delivery and have accidentally frozen a few half-gallons in my day, which doesn’t end well. You can do it on purpose, too, and also freeze other dairy products like cheese, eggs, and butter if you find a good sale and like to stock up.

Milk: Pour out a small amount–you really only need to remove less than a cup–so the container doesn’t expand and explode. It will keep for about a month. Remove your next gallon about 24 hours before you need it. Don’t drink half-thawed milk because it will taste watery and gross.

Cheese: Freeze in bricks, or shred it first! It can last about six months, but cheese that you plan to slice for a party or for grilled cheese sandwiches shouldn’t be frozen, because it will end up crumbly.

Eggs: You can freeze them, but as anyone who has accidentally turned their fridge temperature too cold can tell you, you need to crack them first. This video demonstrates eggs being lightly whisked and stored in an ice cube tray. Eggs can keep for about a year.

Butter: Unsalted butter lasts a month or so, and salted butter can last up to six months. This one’s easy: just put the containers in the freezer.

How To Freeze Dairy Products [YouTube] (via Lifehacker)

Everybody wants to go viral, but for workers at one car dealership in Massachusetts the dream of Internet popularity went totally awry after a video posted online appears to show employees stiffing the pizza delivery guy out of his tip.

First, some background on the situation: Boston.com reports that a video originally titled “irate pizza driver,” that appears to be shot from the vantage point of a camera stationed in a Westport, MA car dealership’s office was first uploaded to YouTube, but has since been deleted.

The title of the video combined with the camera angle and the fact that the video was yanked from YouTube makes one think that the workers at first intended to show how the driver was in the wrong.

Boston.com confirmed with the pizzeria that the transaction took place at the dealership, and a new video has since been posted on LiveLeak showing the testy encounter.

Here’s how it went down:

The driver shows up to deliver the pizzas, which came to a total price of $42 and some odd cents. He received $50 — two $20 bills and two $5 bills, and while this part isn’t in the video, he says he confirmed with the workers that they wouldn’t need change and left, thinking he’d gotten a $7 tip.

Instead, the dealership apparently called his manager and demanded that he hand over the change he’d absconded with.

That’s when the video starts, with the delivery guy asking the very good question of why they’d given him an extra $5 bill in the first place only to have him turn around and waste his resources to return it.

“It just doesn’t make sense why you’d hand me a bill that you were just gonna have me drive back here to give you back anyway,” the driver says in the video. “I’m not mad, I just had to waste my resources coming back here.”

In turn, the office workers lay into him for daring to take the change in the first place.

“So listen: The manager apologized once for you. Do you want him to apologize again for you?” one worker threatens.

“Out the door before I put my foot in your ass,” another says.

“Get the f—ing owner and the manager on the phone, I want that mother-f—er done,” a third man says after the driver leaves. “I want him fired.”

The pizzeria manager did hear from the dealership, with a worker claiming the driver had “verbally berated” them. But he also believed his worker, who explained the situation when asked. He said it wasn’t the first time the pizzeria has had problems with the dealership.

Since the video first hit the Internet, the pizzeria has been getting calls from around the country in support of the driver, with many offering to raise or donate money for him. The manager says now that both the owner of the dealership and his son came by yesterday to apologize in person.

“I was the manager on that night, and today they came and spoke to me, profusely apologized,” the manager says. “We both want to make things right between us. We don’t want any bad blood.”

But when the Internet wants blood, it will have blood — the dealership’s site was struggling to load and workers had stopped picking up calls, with negative reviews flooding in on Yelp and Google yesterday as well.

Westport Car Dealership Messes With Pizza Delivery Guy, Feels Internet’s Wrath [Boston.com]

Back in 2013, we had some misgivings about a message spreading around Facebook that explained the idea of the suspended coffee, and urged people to spread the idea and the idea of donating free coffees to the needy all over the world. Since then, the idea has taken off in some places, including a pizzeria in Philadelphia where customers have bought more than 8,400 slices for homeless and hungry people who stop by.

While the power of a cup of coffee to warm a person up and make them feel human is undeniable, a slice of pizza is both hot and nutritious. (More nutritious than coffee, at least.) A customer who had seen that “suspended coffee” online meme suggested the idea to the owner of Rosa’s Fresh Pizza, and it caught on.

The free slices were tracked in a very simple way at first, with Post-Its on the wall each representing a slices of pizza paid for by a customer, and available to another customer in need. Now that the program has grown to almost 1,000 slices a month, it’s part of the cash register, and remains popular with everyone.

Word spread in the homeless community, and now the walls are covered with thank-you notes from pizza recipients.

Philadelphia Pizza Lovers Pay It Forward One Slice At A Time [NPR]

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Scientists who have reported that the Great Lakes are awash in tiny bits of plastic are raising new alarms about a little-noticed form of the debris turning up in sampling nets: synthetic fibers from garments, cleaning cloths and other consumer products.

They are known as “microfibers” — exceedingly fine filaments made of petroleum-based materials such as polyester and nylon that are woven together into fabrics.

“When we launder our clothes, some of the little microfibers will break off and go down the drain to the wastewater treatment facility and end up in our bodies of water,” Sherri “Sam” Mason, a chemist with the State University of New York at Fredonia, said Friday.

The fibers are so minuscule that people typically don’t realize their favorite pullover fleece can shed thousands of them with every washing, as the journal Environmental Science & Technology reported in 2011.

Over the past couple of years, Mason and colleagues have documented the existence of microplastic litter — some too small to see with the naked eye — in the Great Lakes. Among the particles are abrasive beads used in personal care products such as facial and body washes and toothpastes. Other researchers have made similar finds in the oceans.

A number of companies are replacing microbeads with natural substances such as ground-up fruit pits. Illinois imposed a statewide ban on microbeads last year. Similar measures were proposed in California and New York.

But microfibers have gotten comparatively little attention. They’ve accounted for about 4 percent of the plastic litter that Mason and her students have collected from the Great Lakes. The group drags finely meshed netting along the lake surfaces, harvesting tens of thousands of particles per square mile, and study them with microscopes.

About three-quarters of the bits they’ve found are fragments of larger items such as bottles. Smaller portions consist of microbeads, Styrofoam and other materials.

But when Mason’s team and a group from the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant program took samples from southern Lake Michigan in 2013, about 12 percent of the debris consisted of microfibers. It’s unclear why the fibers were three times as prevalent in that area as elsewhere in the lakes, although currents and wave actions may be one explanation, said Laura Kammin, pollution prevention specialist with Sea Grant.

Ominously, the fibers seem to be getting stuck inside fish in ways that other microplastics aren’t. Microbeads and fragments that fish eat typically pass through their bodies and are excreted. But fibers are becoming enmeshed in gastrointestinal tracts of some fish Mason and her students have examined. They also found fibers inside a double-crested cormorant, a fish-eating bird.

“The longer the plastic remains inside an organism, the greater the likelihood that it will impact the organism in some way,” Mason said, noting that many plastics are made with toxic chemicals or absorb them from polluted water. She is preparing a paper on how microplastics are affecting Great Lakes food chains, including fish that people eat.

There’s also a chance that fibers are in drinking water piped from the lakes, she said. Scientists reported last fall that two dozen varieties of German beer contained microplastics.

Because microfibers are used so widely, there’s no obvious solution, Mason said. Persuading people to stop wearing synthetic clothes likely would be a tougher sell than the idea of switching facial scrubs.

But pollution prevention remains the best way to protect the lakes, Kammin said.

“It’s very hard to remove these microplastics once they’re out there,” she said.

___

Follow John Flesher on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JohnFlesher

The post Scientists: Great Lakes teeming with tiny plastic fibers appeared first on WTOP.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore health officials have taken custody of 14 horses owned by traditional vendors who sell fruit from horse-drawn carriages and sent them to a rescue farm, citing poor stable conditions.

Health officials say Animal Control officers took the horses on Tuesday from a stable used by arrabers, merchants who peddle produce from horse-drawn carts in a generations-old Baltimore tradition.

Officials say the conditions of the stables combined with extremely cold temperatures prompted the raid. Officials say the horses are impounded at the Days End Farm Horse Rescue, and that Animal Control and the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office are investigating.

Officials say a pig, a goat and two chickens were also removed from the stables and sent to rescue.

The post Baltimore officials seize horses from traditional vendors appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — “Call me Tigger! That is the nickname I gave myself.” Can I offer religious advice to my co-workers? Is my wife cheating on me?

Human resource managers say these are some of the more unusual things they’ve heard from job-seekers during interviews.

In an online Harris poll conducted in November and December 2014, CareerBuilder asked more than 2,100  hiring managers about the most unusual interview behaviors they’ve seen.

In addition to the Tigger nickname, the offer for religious advice and a candidate who asked if his wife, who worked at the company was cheating, here are some of the other odd things managers say they’ve encountered during interviews:

• An interviewee spreads out 50 ink pens on a table.
• A candidate fidgets and plays with a duffel bag. He had a dog in the bag.
• Asked about diversity, someone used the term “off the boat.”
• Why did one candidate leave his last job?  Reason: “kicking someone’s butt that really needed it.”
• An interviewee tried to use Google to answer a question.
• One person asked how much everybody else makes.
• Another sat in a yoga pose during the interview.

How quickly do hiring managers know if a candidate is a good fit? Forty nine percent say they know within 5 minutes. Within 15 minutes, 90 percent know.

Hiring managers cited these 10 things as the biggest body language mistakes job-seekers make:

1. Failing to make eye contact: 65 percent
2. Failing to smile: 36 percent
3. Playing with something on the table: 33 percent
4. Having bad posture: 30 percent
5. Fidgeting too much in their seat: 29 percent
6. Crossing their arms over their chest: 26 percent
7. Playing with their hair or touching their face: 25 percent
8. Having a weak handshake: 22 percent
9. Using too many hand gestures: 11 percent
10. Having a handshake that is too strong: 7 percent

Their advice: Rehearse; record a video of yourself answering common interview questions; answer why you are best for the position in 30 seconds; research the company; breathe deeply before the interview.

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The post Odd interview tidbits and mistakes job-seekers make 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 »