pileofcrapola

RYE, N.H. (AP) — A necropsy is being performed Wednesday on an 18-year-old dead humpback whale that had been named Snow Plow by scientists, days after she washed ashore in New Hampshire.

Snow Plow had been studied since she was a calf in the southern Gulf of Maine.

Fishermen had reported seeing the whale’s corpse floating 20 miles out to sea on Sunday. Officials believe she had been dead for several days before washing ashore near the town of Rye.

About 20 people from the New England Aquarium in Boston were performing a necropsy on the 45-foot whale, which weighs 40 tons.

“They could be down a path for example, that she has a load of parasites. It could be she has cancer. It could be she has ship-strike trauma,” David Morin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told WMUR-TV. “You just kind of have to see, just like in a regular human autopsy, kind of where it leads you and then you kind of go from there.”

The Seacoast Science Center’s Marine Mammal Rescue Team has been working with the town over the disposal of the mammal.

The post Death of whale known as Snow Plow investigated appeared first on WTOP.

TIVERTON, R.I. (AP) — Police say a dispute over an unpaid loan was the motive for an 80-year-old man to kill an 81-year-old man in a Rhode Island cemetery.

Tiverton Police Chief Thomas Blakey tells The Newport Daily News this week that Edward Acquisto had taken out a “significant” loan in 2011 from a church in Kingston, Massachusetts.

Police say parishioner John Cloud met him June 13 in Pocasset Hill Cemetery to discuss it, and Acquisto shot him to death among the gravestones. Acquisto later led police on a car chase before officers fatally shot him.

Blakey wouldn’t say how much money Acquisto borrowed or what he did with it, but he did say Acquisto hadn’t repaid any substantial amount.

Acquisto pleaded no contest to manslaughter in 1982 and was convicted of sexual assault in 1981.

The post Cops: Man, 80, killed 81-year-old by graves over unpaid loan appeared first on WTOP.

EXETER, R.I. (AP) — The discovery of tattered American flags strewn among a pile of trash at Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery in Rhode Island has residents outraged.

Stan Snyzyk tells WLNE-TV (http://bit.ly/29oOA3n ) he visits his father’s grave at the Exeter cemetery each week and found the discarded flags Sunday.

Snyzyk took photographs of the flags and posted them on Facebook. The post was shared by more than 5,000 people, with dozens commenting on the lack of respect shown for the American flag.

Veterans Affairs director Kasim Yarn says his staff didn’t follow protocol by tossing the flags in a pile on the ground. U.S. code stipulates that flags no longer fit for display should be disposed in a dignified way — preferably by burning.

The flags were burned in a formal ceremony Monday.

___

Information from: WLNE-TV, http://www.abc6.com

The post US flags strewn among trash at Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery appeared first on WTOP.

FAIRFAX, Virginia — Adam Torres, the first Fairfax County police officer ever convicted of an on-duty shooting has been released from jail, five days after being sentenced for the involuntary manslaughter death of John Geer.

Torres, 33, wearing a short sleeve shirt and shorts and carrying a large plastic bag of personal belongings, declined to answer questions as he was released shortly after 8 a.m. from the Fairfax County jail.

He was greeted inside the facility by several people, who appeared to be family and friends. Torres was escorted to a car parked near the jail entrance, and left without speaking.

In a hearing last Friday, Torres was sentenced to a year in jail, after a plea arrangement with prosecutors, which a judge approved.

Torres’ bond had been revoked when he was indicted on a charge of murder, in Geer’s death. He had been in the Fairfax jail since August 2015.

Torres shot Geer, 46, Springfield, Virginia, in August 2013. At the time of the shooting, Geer was at his own home, standing in a doorway. The shooting came at the end of a 40-minute standoff that started with a domestic-dispute call. Geer was unarmed at the time of the shooting, and witnesses say he had his hands up.

Prosecutor Ray Morrogh said the 10 months Torres served before agreeing to plead guilty to a reduced charge was roughly equivalent to the time he would normally spend in jail after sentencing.

Geer’s partner, and mother of Geer’s children, had approved of the plea arrangement.

Anne Geer, the victim’s mother, had vehemently opposed the deal and sentence, saying one year in prison was not justice for her son.

Torres was fired from the Fairfax County Police Department after being indicted. Earlier, the county had paid Geer’s family $2.95 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit.

The shooting prompted Fairfax County to review use of force and community relations polices in the police department.

Breaking: Fmr Fairfax Co police officer Adam Torres walks out of jail. He shot, killed unarmed John Geer. (VIdeo) pic.twitter.com/IRQGVnDKP9

— Neal Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP) June 29, 2016

The post Ex-Fairfax officer released from jail after manslaughter conviction appeared first on WTOP.

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — Authorities have rounded up three sheep found wondering through downtown Frederick.

The Frederick News-Post reports police records show that the animals were first spotted Monday night.

Officials arrived at the scene, where one of the three wooly wanderers was captured. The other two remained on the loose.

The next morning, authorities were called to the city parking garage, where witnesses saw the animals inside. However, by the time officers arrived, the sheep had fled again.

After chasing the animals all over the city, Sgt. David Luckenbaugh, a county animal control supervisor, says they were finally captured in a creek.

Luckenbaugh says all three female Barbados blackbelly sheep were being safely housed in the county animal shelter as of Tuesday afternoon.

Officials haven’t yet been able to contact the owners.

___

Information from: The Frederick (Md.) News-Post, http://www.fredericknewspost.com

The post Police nab 3 sheep found wandering in downtown Frederick appeared first on WTOP.

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Google may track a lot of your data, but it also creates a lot of tools to let you see that data for yourself. Its newest tool, My Activity, shows you nearly everything you ever do that’s tied to your Google account.

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Frying oil usually ends up with gross gunk floating around in it, making it a poor candidate for re-using, but it turns out there is a simple way to filter all that crap out, and all you need is gelatin.

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If you don’t have a lot of gardening space, growing up instead of out makes the most of what you do have available. This three-tiered planter is easy to put together yourself and will help turn your vertical space into a lush garden.

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Butter makes everything better, but browned butter makes everything more complex and sophisticated. When used in Rice Krispies Treats it tempers the cloying sweetness of the marshmallows and adds depth and nutty goodness.

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Google is everywhere. It’s the world’s biggest search engine, the most popular phone operating system, the most popular web browser, an incredibly popular e-mail service, and a thousand other things. That means it knows a lot about you, especially if you you log in to a Google account and sync or unify your profile about services. Seeing exactly how much it is they know about you, and how it’s used… well, that’s been a little harder. Until now.

Google, like Facebook before it, is opening up another wave of personalized ad services. Rather than just using cookies (now woefully old-fashioned, in internet years) to decide what to display you, Google will use a wealth of behavioral information it’s gleaned about you internet-wide to show you stuff on non-Google sites.

Here’s the good news: unlike the competition, Google is making their service opt-in. That means that by default, you are not participating. You have to deliberately go and move a setting for your data to be used in this way.

Google’s ad settings pagenow comprises two different pages: signed-in ads and signed-out ads. You can control each independently.

Additionally, Google is launching an activity-tracking clearinghouse page called my activity. The page shows you several different sets of tracked data Google has on you, and lets you review each individually.

The My Activity page contains a link at the bottom to direct you to your privacy settings for all of those categories should you wish to change or disable any. The privacy checkup methodically takes you through all Google services, starting with Google+ and your public profile. Collection of other data is under section 4, “Personalize your Google experience.” You can enable or disable Google’s activity trackers here.

That said, opting out for privacy’s sake does come with a price: being able to sync your browser bookmarks across platforms, or using proximity-based and map-based features on an Android phone, is convenient — and when you opt out of data tracking, by default, you’re also opting out of using certain kinds of apps and services.

Still, it’s a fairly granular level of control, so any Google user — i.e. everyone on the internet — can choose what’s best for their needs.

[via The Guardian]

For years, regional airlines, government agencies, and pilot groups have warned that new regulations, higher costs of school, and lower salaries had led to a shortage of pilots that could affect the number of flights smaller carriers are able to offer. It now appears that this scarcity of youngsters hoping to someday take flight could result in airlines beginning to run out of pilot in as few as three years.

Bloomberg, citing a study by the University of North Dakota’s Aviation Department, reports that as more pilots reach the mandatory age of retirement – and fewer young fliers enter commercial aviation – the pilot deficit could soar to 15,000 in 10 years.

The shortage was illustrated earlier this year when regional carrier Republic Airways, which provides short-haul flights for several major airlines, filed for bankruptcy citing the ongoing regional pilot shortage.

As a Government Accountability Office report found in 2014, many would-be pilots have changed their career paths when faced with the stiff requirements and time-consuming, expensive process tied to flying commercially.

While most major airlines aren’t losing pilots at an exponential rate yet, they are worried that the lack of people seeking to become pilots with smaller regional airlines — those that bring passengers from smaller airports to hub airports — will create a trickle up effect, as smaller operators typically create a hiring pool for major carriers.

“That is one of the things in my job I get to worry about every day and when I go to bed at night,” Greg Muccio, a senior manager at Southwest Airlines Co., tells Bloomberg.

According to the University of North Dakota study, would-be pilots cited three reasons for their decision to change career paths: the cost of flight training and certification; low pay at regional airports; and regulatory changes to the hours required before becoming a first officer.

Now, major carriers are trying to alleviate the shortage by changing the way they hire new pilots, making benefits packages and salaries more attractive.

For example, Bloomberg reports, some airlines are boosting signing bonuses at regional carriers they own and partnering with flight schools and university aviation programs to make the process more affordable.

A focus on regional airline pilot compensation makes sense for major carriers, as the 2014 GAO report found that failure by 11 out of 12 regional airlines to meet hiring targets for entry-level pilots may have more to do with the salary offered than with the number of pilots available.

The average starting salary for regional airlines is $22,400, well below what major airlines offer.

American Airlines’ regional carriers — Envoy, Piedmont and PSA airlines — recently increased signing bonuses to $15,000, while Delta’s Endeavor regional carrier now pays a signing bonus of $23,000.

As for the cost of training, Bloomberg reports that flight-training fees for a commercial aviation major total about $64,500 at the University of North Dakota, the largest public aviation program in the U.S. However, that figure is just for fees, it doesn’t include tuition or room and board.

To help lessen some of these costs, Southwest tells Bloomberg that it had dropped a requirement that pilot applicants hold a certificate to fly Boeing 737s. The certificate can cost as much as $14,000.

JetBlue began a program earlier this year, dubbed Gateway Select, that aims to recruit would-be pilots with no flying experience. These recruits are tested and then placed in a four-year study program.

In addition to lower compensation and high training costs, airlines also say the shortage in pilots is tied to a lack of interest.

“The biggest problem is a general lack of interest in folks pursuing this as a career anymore. That’s what puts us in the most jeopardy,” Muccio tells Bloomberg.

And so the airline is trying to get in early with future pilots. Muccio says that he’s spending more time visiting colleges, high schools, and elementary schools trying to interest students in a flying career.

Shrinking Pool of Future Pilots Keeps Major Airlines on Edge [Bloomberg]

Maybe you know that David Bowie was born David Jones, or that the St. Louis Cardinals were previously the St. Louis Browns, Brown Stockings, and Perfectos, but did you know that PayPal was originally called Confinity, or that Yahoo was briefly named “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web”?

Okay, so it’s entirely possible you knew the answer to both of those, but are you willing to stake your semi-professional reputation on your knowledge of bygone brands? We hope not, because that would be a ridiculous thing to wager on a silly quiz.

Anyway, you know the drill: Read questions; answer questions; tell your friends; allow to dry overnight in warm, clean spot; repeat.

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California residents may no longer have to complain to their doctors about raging headaches in order to get their hands on legal marijuana soon, as an initiative to legalize the use of recreational pot in the state will be on the ballot this November.

While medical marijuana has been legal in the Golden State since 1996, with doctors prescribing weed for a variety of conditions, from nausea to migraines, back pains to insomnia, technically, it’s illegal if you don’t have a medical marijuana card.

That could change with the new initiative — which is now officially on the ballot now for Nov. 8, after the Secretary of State’s Office certified that a random sample showed sufficient signatures among the 600,000 turned in to qualify the measure, the Los Angeles Times reports.

If passed, the initiative would allow adults 21 and older to possess, transport, and use up to an ounce of cannabis for recreational purposes. Want to grow your own at home? That’d be legal too, with a maximum of six plants allowed per home.

“Today marks a fresh start for California as we prepare to replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself,” said Jason Kinney, a spokesman for California’s Adult Use of Marijuana Act.

California would join Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. in allowing recreational pot if the measure proves successful. Eight other states also have marijuana measures on their ballots this year.

What makes this different than the last time California had recreational pot on the ballot, which was the failed Proposition 19 in 2010? Nothing, say opponents of the measure, including the Coalition for Responsible Drug Policies. A similar opposition coalition led to the downfall of Prop. 19 in 2010, the LAT notes.

“This campaign will be very similar to that of Proposition 19. They have the money and we have the facts,” said Tim Rosales, a spokesman for the coalition, said. The group says legalization will lead to more people driving while high and let dealers of harder drugs get a handhold in the new industry.

But proponents say the new measure has a better chance of survival because there’s more regulation at the state level, instead of letting locals call the shots. And besides, times are different now.

“This is six years later. We’ve already seen legalization pass and be successful in other states. So it’s a different world in talking about this issue than it was,” said Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Assn.

Initiative to legalize recreational use of pot in California qualifies for November ballot [Los Angeles Times]

For better or worse (mostly worse), I’ve always been a big fan of soda, so when I was a senior in high school in Florida in the early ’90s, I was over the moon that my area would get to try Crystal Pepsi before some other parts of the country. Then I tasted the underwhelming clear cola for myself. Now, more than 20 years later, Pepsi gets to introduce a new generation of cola lovers to that same unique disappointment, with a limited time re-release of Crystal Pepsi that we’re pretty sure the world could have done without.

In a press release apparently written by someone who either has no memory of the 1990s or doesn’t understand what “iconic” means, PepsiCo says that “overwhelming fan demand” has given the company no other choice but to fill a few bottles with the “iconic 90s [sic] clear beverage.”

Um, Crystal Pepsi was barely around for a year, and its reputation is primarily that of an overhyped failure, so dubbing the drink “iconic” is like calling Cop Rock an iconic piece of TV history, or saying Ryan Leaf is a football icon. We guess “infamous” or “frequently mocked” doesn’t read as well in a press release.

Regardless, those who genuinely think they have fond memories of Crystal Pepsi can join those who will purchase it ironically in clamoring for the stuff when 20 oz. bottles hit store shelves July 7, with a scheduled end date of Aug. 8.

Who knows, maybe I’m just old and bitter and completely wrong. Maybe we’re actually standing on the precipice of a clear cola boom — a true Crystal Pepsi generation. Or maybe there will be lots of half-finished bottles of Crystal Pepsi filling up recycling bins in the hot summer sun.

In the more than 20 years that it’s been in business, Chipotle hasn’t changed its menu very much. That’s why it’s notable that the burrito eatery is slowly rolling out a new protein, just over two years after introducing braised tofu that they had to bribe everyone to try. Only a few select markets get to try the new chorizo for now, though.

If you aren’t familiar with chorizo, Chipotle’s version will have a blend of chicken and pork, seasoned with paprika, cumin, and chipotle peppers. It will be available alongside other protein options to be added to burritos, burrito bowls, salads, and tacos, but only in a few markets.

The sausage has been tested in Kansas City for almost a year, and executives explained that the planned national rollout was postponed because of the company’s food safety crisis that you may have heard about.

During the company’s last earnings call, the chorizo rollout and the special summer loyalty program were two things that executives promoted as items that would help draw new customers and keep old ones coming back.

“While we have never been opposed to changing our menu, we only do so when we think there’s an opportunity to add something that is really unique but that fits within our overall menu, and where we can find ingredients that meet our high standards,” co-CEO and founder Steve Ells is quoted saying in a statement that the company released.

The sausage will be made from meat from animals treated more humanely than conventional poultry and pigs, and without antibiotics or added hormones.

If you can’t wait, here are the early-adopter markets that will have chorizo starting today:

• Manhattan
• Columbus, OH Area
• San Diego, CA Area
• Sacramento, CA Area
• Denver: 16th St. and Blake St.
• Dulles Airport

Let us know if you’ve tried it!

Brand Spicing New [Chipotle]

It’s been exactly a week since Burger King made every cheese lovers’ dreams (or nightmares) come true by shoving glowing, orange-ish mac and cheese inside a hollow, fried giant Cheeto. So, how has the fast food company’s Mac n’ Cheetos concoction been received since it officially hit stores on Monday? Let’s just say the initial feedback is underwhelming.

Burger King debuted the new menu item last week, describing the portable snack mashup as a “dangerously cheesy re-imagination” that combines creamy mac n’ cheese with crispy Cheetos.

But some fast food connoisseurs say the unholy cheese combination — sold as five pieces for $2.49 — falls short of the company’s description, instead calling them “not good,” but “not totally awful.”

That glowing review from For The Win goes on to say that the only redeeming quality of the super sized-stuffed Cheetos is the fact they contain cheese, and “cheese is good.”

“And though there’s some mild crispiness to the fried outer crust of the Mac n’ Cheetos, there’s really nothing about them besides the shape that calls to mind a Cheeto,” the review states. “The primary things we associate with Cheetos, I think, are the crunchiness and the delicious cheese dust they leave on your fingers. Burger King’s Mac n’ Cheetos feature only a hint of crunch and an inexcusable lack of cheese dust.”

The Chicago Tribune eloquently described a recent Mac n’ Cheetos meal as a “gritty, fried nugget of Easy Mac, rolled in the remains of the bottom of a bag of Cheetos.”

The review also notes that the snack was less cheesy and more salty: “Can something be cheesy if there’s no semblance of real cheese?” the reviewer asks.

A Yahoo review of the meal took issue with the fact that Burger King pushed the product as something every Cheetos-lover would like.

“If this product had simply been marketed as ‘fried mac ‘n’ cheese,’ I would have to say the Burger King hit it out of the park, but they didn’t,” the review states. “They marketed it as ‘Mac n’ Cheetos,’ and it is in Cheetos department that I find them wanting.”

While that tester enjoyed the “slightly congealed” but otherwise “Velveeta-y interior,” the Cheetos aspect was described as “Cheetos-Scented friend stuff.”

Food reviewers weren’t alone in their unexceptional response to Mac n’ Cheetos. Actual customers haven’t exactly been thrilled with the fried snack.

Still, some customers enjoyed the semi-cheesy snack, in some cases thanks to an assist from novelty.

Reading Marion Nestle’s Food Politics will make you feel like a speck in a universe of giants. Corporations alternately battle and collude with the United States government in chapter after chapter, spending billions of dollars to influence what you, the consumer, choose to put in your mouth.

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No one wants to serve spoiled food to their families. Conversely, consumers don’t want to throw food away unnecessarily–but we certainly do. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates Americans toss out the equivalent of US$162 billion in food every year, at the retail and consumer levels. Plenty of that food is discarded while still safe to eat.

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If you’re trying to develop a healthier diet, learning to manage your portions is an important step. This simple rule of thumb from a nutritionist who works with pro athletes can make visualizing appropriate portions easier.

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You might not want to spend too much time with your poop, but it can tell you a lot about your overall health . StoolAnalyzer can help you narrow down what health issues you might be having based on the size, color, and frequency of your bowel movements.

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WASHINGTON — On a cross-country road trip, one Minnesota-based beekeeper packed the back of his truck with more than 2.5 million dead bees.

“Right now colonies are still collapsing at an alarming rate,” said James Cook, the beekeeper who has driven from South Dakota to D.C. in order to raise awareness for mass bee colony deaths across the country.

In 2011, as many as 12 million bees died in Brevard County, Florida. Last year, Maryland saw a loss of more than 60 percent of its hives. The mass loss of bees even prompted President Barack Obama to create a Pollinator Health Task Force in 2014.

The “Keep the Hives Alive” tour, largely organized by grass roots network Friends of the Earth, lasted from June 13-23 and ended with a rally in front of the Environmental Protection Agency building in D.C. last week.

Cook told WTOP in a phone interview that he wanted to use the dead bees as a way to drive the point home. The bees on his truck represented about 75 hives worth, but on a national scale, there have been up to 840,000 hives lost reported last year, according to Cook.

Causes of death include pests and pathogens, but Cook’s main concern is bee-fatal pesticides.

“The reason people should care about pollinators is that there are quite a few foods that we enjoy eating that would not be in existence without their help,” Cook said. “So it’s definitely something that’s important for everybody to keep on their conscience.”

The post Man drives dead-bee-filled truck across US to raise awareness appeared first on WTOP.

GREENBELT, Md. — Remember those kittens and cats dumped outside the Greenbelt Animal Shelter a few weeks ago?

Turns out there’s some good news: Shelter officials say the 28 cats that were left at their doorstep in boxes and plastic crates have almost all been adopted or placed with rescue groups.

The only ones that have not been scooped up yet are a small mother and her little that she delivered shortly before being left at the shelter. So for now, she and her five kittens are resting. In about four weeks, they’ll all be ready for adoption.

Celia Craze, director of the department of planning and community development in Greenbelt, says not only did all the available abandoned cats and kittens find new homes, but some cats that had been waiting to be adopted before the new arrivals showed up were placed as well.

Donations to the shelter have also increased.

Craze says thanks in part to WTOP’s coverage, many cats now have happy forever homes.

The post Happy ending for dozens of cats, kittens abandoned at Md. shelter appeared first on WTOP.

SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is what has replaced what were once called food stamps with debit cards. Not all stores are authorized to accept food stamps, and proposed new regulations would change the requirements to accept them. While the foods that recipients can use their balance on wouldn’t change, the food that retailers are required to stock before they can accept SNAP would.

What would they be required to carry? Stores taking part in the program would be required to carry more protein and dairy products, stocking a minimum of six packages each of items like sliced turkey, canned tuna, almond milk, or infant formula. That isn’t a problem for a large retailer like Walmart, but it is very inconvenient for small corner stores that don’t have much shelf space, and that don’t have a lot of demand for tofu and almond milk among customers.

One corner store owner in Chicago told the WSJ that even though he tried stocking fresh meat in years past, that isn’t what customers were there to buy. “We tried that a long time ago,” he said, but customers used their SNAP funds to buy chips and soda instead anyway.

Defenders of smaller stores say that the new rules would put supermarkets and large discounters like Walmart at an advantage, since they already stock the variety of items that the rules would require.

Stores Accepting Food Stamps Face Stricter Rules [Wall Street Journal]

A week after the death of Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin was potentially linked to the confusing gear shifter in recalled Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler vehicles, federal safety regulators revealed they have closed an investigation into the issue following Fiat Chrysler’s recall of vehicles now tied to 68 injuries and hundreds of crashes. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed the investigation into certain model year Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Charger, and Chrysler 300 vehicles after Fiat Chrysler (FCA) — the maker of the vehicles — issued a recall involving the monostable electronic gear shifts earlier this year.

According to the notice [PDF], at the time the investigation was closed — dated June 24 — 686 complaints, 68 injuries, and 266 crashes had been linked to affected vehicles.

NHTSA decided to close the investigation based on FCA’s February recall of 811,586 model year 2012-2014 Dodge Charger, 2012-2014 Chrysler 300, and 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles equipped with the confusing gear shifters.

The crux of the problem is found in the design of the more intuitive electronic gear shifter. Unlike a traditional shifter, the electronic version is simply moved forward and backward to select gear. Once the gear has been selected, the shifter returns to the centered position.

This means the e-shifter lacks the typical grooves and sensation of moving the car into park, drive, or reverse that drivers are accustomed to.

While the vehicles include a chime and message that sounds when a driver opens his or her door when the gearshift isn’t in “park,” safety regulators determined this function does not protect drivers who “intentionally leave the engine running or those who do not realize that the engine is still running after an attempted shut-off.”

In the notice closing the investigation, NHTSA says it is aware of a fatality possibly related to the gear shift issue, but did not specifically name the deceased. The death of Yelchin involved a recalled 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee and is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department and FCA, NHTSA notes.

Still, the agency says that FCA’s recall remedy — which involves the development of an “Auto Park” shift — and interim notification to vehicle owners describing the shifter issues and urging them to take safety precautions to observe parking the vehicle is enough to close the investigation into the vehicles.

Last week, something pretty normal happened at a house in Houston: the postal carrier brought the mail, and the dogs hanging out in the yard barked at him. What happened next, caught on a security camera, was unusual: the man sprayed all three dogs with what appears to be pepper spray, even though they were secured behind a heavy gate.

The dogs appear to weigh around 20 pounds each, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t and won’t bite. Houston happens to be the U.S. Postal Service’s top city for employee dog bites, but the video clearly shows that the dogs were behind a closed gate, and the mailbox was outside of that gate.

They weren’t likely to break through the gate, weighing maybe 20 pounds each. Being small and cuddly doesn’t mean that a dog won’t bite when it feels threatened, but the family describes the pets as “lap dogs.”

The substance sprayed on them hasn’t been identified, but the dogs were in pain and the family reports that they couldn’t open their eyes for a few hours after being sprayed.

The USPS told the Houston Chronicle in a statement:

Every effort has been made to resolve this issue, and a senior postal manager will visit the pet owners and apologize, on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service. Regarding the status of the letter carrier, as this is a personnel issue, the Postal Service is not at liberty to comment.

The family stated that they don’t want the postal carrier to be fired, but they would like to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

US Postal Service apologizes after worker uses pepper spray on family dogs [Houston Chronicle]

Casper might be the best mattress for everyone, but not for your houseguests. Put them on this discounted Serta air mattress, marked down to an all-time low $100 today as part of a Gold Box deal.

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I’ve been using a standing desk for a few months now and I love it. It makes me feel more productive , keeps me active, and cost me next to nothing to set up. Still, I had some growing pains. If you’re thinking about setting up a standing desk, here’s what I learned so you don’t have to.

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With record numbers of travelers set to hit the highways and byways of America this holiday weekend, it sounds like it’ll be quite a party out there on those roads. But according to a new report, it’s this kind of increased travel that’s putting a strain on the nation’s 60-year-old interstate highway system, causing congestion while needed repairs stack up.

A report from research group TRIP [PDF] that looked at Federal Highway Administration figures, timed to the 60th anniversary of the interstate highway system on June 29, notes that while the system only has about 2.5% of the miles of lanes nationwide, it carries 25% of traffic. Traffic has grown at twice the rate of new lanes since 2000, the report found, which has led to congestion.

Of the country’s urban interstates, about 43% are considered congested because traffic has significant delays during peak hours, FHA figures show.

Then there’s the estimated $189 billion backlog of needed improvements, according to the Transportation Department, which includes $100 billion for expansion and enhancement, $59 billion to fix up pavement, and $30 billion to restore bridges.

“Drivers are frustrated with the condition of the nation’s transportation system,” Jill Ingrassia, AAA’s director of government relations told USA Today. “While a record 36 million travelers plan to hit the road for Independence Day weekend, nearly 70% are concerned that roads and bridges are not in great driving condition.”

Many travelers will experience those crowded interstates over the Fourth of July holiday, AAA says, due to gas hitting its lowest prices since 2005: a projected 36.3 million people will drive 50 miles or more from home during the holiday period, up 1.2% from last year.

“Spurred by the lowest gas prices since 2005, more people than ever are planning to travel this Independence Day weekend,” said Marshall Doney, AAA president and CEO. “We are well on our way for 2016 to be a record-breaking year for summertime travel.”

We live in an age where a digital copy of just about any piece of artwork is obtainable for free with a couple of clicks and taps on your computer or phone. That doesn’t mean you can just use said artwork in an ad to tell people about some deal on a 2016 Ford Focus.

A Boston-area Ford dealership is dealing with some internet blowback this afternoon after folks realized that the car-seller had swiped artwork from the indie game Firewatch to promote the “Ford Freedom” sales event.

This isn’t a case of similar artwork; it’s identical, aside from the Ford sales copy:

The irony, as Game Informer points out, is that the Firewatch game is all about walking through the wilderness. So of all the driving and car-themed games out there from which the dealership could have swiped more relevant artwork, it picked a game about the joys of exploring on foot.

The art theft was first noted on Twitter by app-maker Panic Inc., and then picked up by the co-founder of Campo Santo, the company that made Firewatch:

When Game Informer called the dealership to inquire about the ad, they were pointed toward the auto group’s ad department, which responded by hanging up on the reporter after admitting that it did no vetting of artwork.

The ad exec then wrote back to say clarify that “We always use DMCA compliant sites when getting images,” referring to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The ad guy claimed that the Firewatch image was obtained from a DMCA-compliant digital “wallpaper” site, but he seems to be confused about complying with the DMCA actually means.

Yes, this site has a way for copyright holders to file a grievance about stolen artwork being used, but that doesn’t mean that everything posted to the wallpaper site has somehow been pre-checked to make sure the copyright holder has given permission, or that the image is in the public domain.

That would be like saying it was okay to put a YouTube clip in your Ford TV ad without permission just because YouTube has a way to file a DMCA complaint.