Tag: Environment

Proof President Trump Accomplished Most in History

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

President Donald J. Trump accomplished more to support America in four years than Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Bill and Hillary Clinton in their lifetimes.


🔹Violent crime fell every year Tump was in office after rising during the two years before he was elected. Under Biden, crime has drastically increased.

🔹Trump removed over 8,200 government employees from their Deep State positions and had planned to remove at least 20,000 more.


🔹Under Trump’s leadership, in 2018 the U.S. surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of crude oil. Biden destroyed that.


🔹 Trump signed a law ending the gag orders on Pharmacists that prevented them from sharing money-saving information. 


🔹Trump signed the “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act” (FOSTA), which includes the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act” (SESTA) which both give law enforcement and victims new tools to fight sex trafficking. 


🔹Trump signed a bill to require airports to provide spaces for breastfeeding Moms. 


🔹The 25% lowest-paid Americans enjoyed a 4.5% income boost in November 2019, which outpaced a 2.9% gain in earnings for the country’s highest-paid workers. 

🔹Trump signed 3 bills to benefit Native people. One gives compensation to the Spokane tribe for loss of their lands in the mid-1900s, one funds Native language programs, and the third gives federal recognition to the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Montana. 


🔹Trump finalized the creation of Space Force as our 6th Military branch. 


🔹Trump signed a law to make cruelty to animals a federal felony so that animal abusers face tougher consequences. 


🔹Low-wage workers benefitted from higher minimum wages and from corporations that were increasing entry-level pay. 


🔹Trump signed the biggest wilderness protection & conservation bill in a decade and designated 375,000 acres as protected land. 


🔹Trump signed the Save our Seas Act which funds $10 million per year to clean tons of plastic & garbage from the ocean. 


🔹He signed a bill allowing some drug imports from Canada so that prescription prices would go down. 


🔹Trump signed an executive order forcing all healthcare providers to disclose the cost of their services so that Americans could comparison shop and know how much fewer providers charge insurance companies. 


🔹When signing that bill he said no American should be blindsided by bills for medical services they never agreed to in advance. 


🔹Trump’s EPA gave $100 million to fix the water infrastructure problem in Flint, Michigan. 


🔹Hospitals became required to post their standard charges for services, which include the discounted price a hospital is willing to accept. 


🔹In the eight years prior to President Trump’s inauguration, prescription drug prices increased by an average of 3.6% per year. Under Trump, drug prices year-over-year declined. Under Biden, they have increased.


🔹Trump created a White House VA Hotline to help veterans and principally staffed it with veterans and direct family members of veterans. 


🔹VA employees were being held accountable for poor performance, with more than 4,000 Deep State VA employees removed, demoted, and suspended.


🔹Issued an executive order requiring the Secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs to submit a joint plan to provide veterans access to mental health treatment as they transition to civilian life. 


🔹Because of a bill signed and championed by Trump, in 2020, most federal employees saw their pay increase by an average of 3.1% — the largest raise in more than 10 years. 


🔹Trump signed into law up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for millions of federal workers. 


🔹Trump administration provided HIV prevention drugs for free to 200,000 uninsured patients per year for 11 years. 


🔹Prior to the year of the fake news and Democrat pandemic scheme, there was an all-time record sales during the 2019 holidays. 


🔹 Trump signed an order allowing small businesses to group together when buying insurance to get a better price.

FOCUS ON BLACK AMERICANS


🔹President Trump signed the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act to provide funding for states to develop maternal mortality reviews to better understand maternal complications and identify solutions & largely focuses on reducing the higher mortality rates for Black Americans. 


🔹 In 2018, President Trump signed the groundbreaking First Step Act, a criminal justice bill that enacted reforms that make our justice system fairer and help former inmates successfully return to society. 


🔹The First Step Act’s reforms addressed inequities in sentencing laws that disproportionately harmed Black Americans and reformed mandatory minimums that created unfair outcomes. 


🔹The First Step Act expanded judicial discretion in the sentencing of non-violent crimes. 


🔹Over 90% of those benefitting from the retroactive sentencing reductions in the First Step Act are Black Americans. 


🔹The First Step Act provides rehabilitative programs to inmates, helping them successfully rejoin society and not return to crime. 


🔹 Trump increased funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by more than 14%.


🔹Trump signed legislation forgiving Hurricane Katrina debt that threatened HBCUs. 

🔹New single-family home sales increases up 31.6% in October 2019 compared to just the year prior. 


🔹 Made HBCUs a priority by creating the position of executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs. 

🔹Trump received the Bipartisan Justice Award at a historically black college for his criminal justice reform accomplishments. 

POVERTY DOWN EMPLOYMENT UP


🔹 The poverty rate fell to an 18-year low of 11.1% under the Trump administration as a result of a jobs-rich environment. 


🔹Poverty rates for African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans reached their lowest levels since the U.S. began collecting such data. 


🔹President Trump signed a bill to create five national monuments, expand several national parks, add 1.3 million acres of wilderness, and permanently reauthorize the Land and Water, Conservation Fund. Biden’s Executive Order cancelled this.


🔹 Trump’s USDA committed $124 Million to rebuild rural water infrastructure. 


🔹Consumer Confidence and Small Business Confidence reached an all-time high. Under Biden, historical lows.

🔹More than 7.6 million jobs were created under Trump.  


🔹More Americans were employed under Trump than ever recorded before in our history. 


🔹Almost 500,000 manufacturing jobs were created. 

FIERCELY FOUGHT HUMAN TRAFFICKING WITH RECORD RESULTS


🔹 Through Trump’s Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam) initiative, Federal law enforcement more than doubled convictions of human traffickers and increased the number of defendants charged by 75% in ACTeam districts. 


🔹Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) dismantled an organization that was the internet’s leading source of prostitution-related advertisements resulting in sex trafficking. 


🔹 Trump’s OMB published new anti-trafficking guidance for government procurement officials to more effectively combat human trafficking.


🔹 Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations arrested over 1,588 criminals associated with Human Trafficking. 


🔹Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services provided funding to support the National Human Trafficking Hotline to identify perpetrators and give victims the help they need. 


🔹The hotline identified 17,805 potential human trafficking cases. 


🔹Trump’s DOJ provided grants to organizations that support human trafficking victims – serving over 10,000 cases from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019. 


🔹The Department of Homeland Security hired more victim assistance specialists, helping victims get resources and support. 


🔹President Trump called on Congress to pass school choice legislation so that no child is trapped in a failing school because of his or her zip code.

🔹He signed funding legislation in September 2018 that increased funding for school choice by $42 million. 

🔹The tax cuts signed into law by President Trump promoted school choice by allowing families to use 529 college savings plans for elementary and secondary education. 


🔹Under his leadership, ISIS lost its territory and was dismantled. They are back with Biden in charge.

🔹 ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was killed. Biden can’t bring him back.


🔹Signed the first Perkins CTE reauthorization since 2006, authorizing more than $1 billion for states each year to fund vocational and career education programs. 


🔹Executive order expanding apprenticeship opportunities for students and workers. 


🔹Trump issued an Executive Order prohibiting the U.S. government from discriminating against Christians or punishing expressions of faith. 


🔹 President Trump ordered a halt to U.S. tax money going to international organizations that fund or perform abortions. 


🔹Trump imposed sanctions on the socialists in Venezuela who have killed their citizens. 


🔹 Finalized new trade agreement with South Korea. 


🔹Made a deal with the European Union to increase U.S. energy exports to Europe. 

🔹Withdrew the U.S. from the job-killing TPP deal. Secured $250 billion in new trade and investment deals in China and $12 billion in Vietnam. Okay’d up to $12 billion in aid for farmers affected by unfair trade retaliation. 


🔹Had over 20 US hostages freed, including those Obama could not get freed. 


🔹Trump signed the Music Modernization Act, the biggest change to copyright law in decades. 

🔹Despite Nancy Pelosi’s resistance, Trump secured billions to fund building of the wall at our southern border. 


* President Trump’s historic tax cut legislation included new Opportunity Zone Incentives to promote investment in low-income communities across the country. 
8,764 communities across the country were designated as Opportunity Zones. Opportunity Zones spurred nearly $100 billion in long-term private capital investment in economically distressed communities across the country. 

🔹Trump directed the Education Secretary to end Common Core. 


🔹Trump signed the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund into law. 


🔹Trump signed measure funding prevention programs for Veteran suicide. 


🔹Companies brought back over a TRILLION dollars from overseas because of the TCJA bill that Trump signed. 


🔹Manufacturing jobs grew at the fastest rate in more than 30 years while the Stock Market reached record highs. Median household income hit the highest level ever recorded. 

LOWEST UNEMPLOYMENT EVER


🔹 African-American unemployment was at an all-time low. 
🔹 Hispanic-American unemployment was at an all-time low. 
🔹 Asian-American unemployment was at an all-time low. 
🔹Women’s unemployment rate was at a 65-year low. 
🔹 Youth unemployment reached a 52-year low. 
🔹We had the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded. 


🔹The Pledge to America’s Workers has resulted in employers committing to train more than 4 million Americans. Biden destroyed that.


🔹95 percent of U.S. manufacturers were optimistic about the future— the highest ever. Under Biden, lowest in history.


🔹 Record number of regulations eliminated that hurt small businesses. 


🔹Signed welfare reform requiring able-bodied adults who don’t have children to work or look for work if they’re on welfare. 

FOUGHT BIG PHARMA


🔹Under Trump, the FDA approved more affordable generic drugs than ever before in history. 


🔹Reformed Medicare program to stop hospitals from overcharging low-income seniors on their drugs—saving seniors 100’s of millions of $$$ this year alone. 


🔹Signed Right-To-Try legislation allowing terminally ill patients to try an experimental treatment that wasn’t allowed before. 


🔹 Secured $6 billion in new funding to fight the opioid epidemic. Biden and Pelosi send much to Ukraine for kickbacks.

Frontline Doctors


🔹Signed VA Choice Act and VA Accountability Act, expanded VA telehealth services, walk-in-clinics, and same-day urgent primary and mental health care. 


🔹 U.S. oil production reached an all-time high and we were not dependent on oil from the Middle East. Biden destroyed that.


🔹The U.S. became a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957. Biden destroyed that.


🔹 NATO allies increased their defense spending because of Trump’s pressure campaign. 


🔹Withdrew the United States from the job-killing Paris Climate Accord in 2017 and that same year the U.S. still led the world by having the largest reduction in carbon emissions. 


🔹Moved U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. 


🔹 Imposed tariffs on China in response to China’s forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and their chronically abusive trade practices.  

Fought Big Pharma


🔹Signed legislation to improve the National Suicide Hotline. 


🔹Signed the most comprehensive childhood cancer legislation ever into law, to advance childhood cancer research and improve treatments. 


🔹 The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by Trump doubled the maximum amount of the child tax credit available to parents and lifted the income limits so more people could claim it. 

🔹 The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) signed into law by Trump provided a tax credit equal to 20-35% of child care expenses, $3,000 per child & $6,000 per family + Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) allow you to set aside up to $5,000 in pre-tax $ to use for child care. 


🔹 In 2019 President Donald Trump signed the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education and Support Act (CARES) into law which allocated $1.8 billion in funding over the following five years to help people with autism spectrum disorder and to help their families. 


🔹 In 2019 President Trump signed into law two funding packages providing nearly $19 million in new funding for Lupus specific research and education programs, as well as an additional $41.7 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the most Lupus funding EVER.

In God We Trust

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From award-winning Texas author Cynthia Leal Massey.

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CLICK: PARK LANE by Rebecca Taylor

Are Mega Windmills Really Awesome as Big Environment Proclaims?

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

A two-megawatt windmill is made up of 260 tons of steel that required 300 tons of iron ore and 170 tons of coking coal, all mined, transported and produced by hydrocarbons.

It holds 700 gallons of oil and hydraulic fluid, and just as a car, these need to be replaced every 9 months.

People might fall for the idea that we can merrily run on sunshine and breezes alone, but with a few trillion dollars worth of mythical mega-batteries providing backup for a few minutes, it could spin until it falls apart over and over again and never generate as much energy as was invested in building it.

In fact installing the foundation of a single offshore turbine can consume 18,857 barrels of marine fuel during construction, according to calculations published by Forbes.

Offshore wind farms often have over 100 wind turbines, meaning that building them requires almost 2 million barrels of fuel just to power the ships involved in construction.

“You can’t even construct or operate offshore wind turbines without oil,” Chris Warren, a spokesman for the free-market Institute for Energy Research, explains. “For decades, we have been told that wind, solar, and other so-called ‘green’ sources are the future, and yet these sources remain expensive, intermittent, and unreliable despite government mandates and subsidies. Offshore wind in particular remains one of the most expensive sources of electricity that exists.”

Consider the life cycle of a wind turbine:

🔹giant diesel powered mining trucks and machines dig deep into the earth for iron ore

🔹fossil-fueled ships take the ore to a facility that will use fossil fuels to crush it and permeate it with petro-chemicals to extract the metal from the ore

🔹This metal will be taken in a diesel truck or locomotive to a smelter which runs exclusively on fossil fuels 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the 12 to 20 years they may last

🔹There are over 8,000 parts to a wind turbine which are delivered over global supply chains via petroleum-fueled ships, rail, air, and trucks to the assembly factory.

🔹There are 435 million miles of asphalted roads in the world. Wind turbines and solar panels and their raw materials depend on these roads, and the energy to build and maintain them. Roads are how the diesel cement trucks arrive at the wind turbine site to pour many tons of concrete while other diesel trucks carry segments of the wind turbine to the site and workers arrive in gas or diesel vehicles to assemble it.

Turbine being loaded in China for ship transportation.

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Here are more considerations not usually revealed in corporate media, Big Energy, Big Environment and the Biden White House:

🔹Windmills require petroleum every single step of their life cycle. If they can’t replicate themselves using wind turbine generated electricity, they are not sustainable

🔹Not enough dispatchable power, such as natural gas or hydropower, to balance wind intermittency and unreliability.

🔹Wind blows seasonally, so for much of the year there isn’t adequate wind.

🔹The role of an electrical grid is to keep the supply of power steady and predictable. Wind does the opposite, at some point of penetration, it may become impossible to keep the grid from crashing.

🔹Windmills can’t be built without huge subsidies and tax breaks.

🔹The best wind is too high to capture.

🔹Wide-scale US wind power could cause significant global warming. A Harvard study raises questions about just how much wind should be part of a climate solution.

🔹Wind is only strong enough to justify windmills in a few limited regions.

🔹Wind blows the strongest when customer demand is generally the weakest.

🔹Wind Power surges harm industrial customers.

🔹Windmills take up too much space

🔹Wind turbines break down too often.

🔹Large-scale wind energy slows down winds and reduces turbine efficiencies.

🔹Offshore windmills battered by waves, wind, ice, corrosion, are a true hazard to ships and ecosystems.

🔹Offshore wind farms are susceptible to hurricane destruction.

🔹The costs of lightning damage are extremely high.

🔹Turbines increase the cost of farming.

🔹Wind turbines are already going out of business and fewer are being built in Europe

🔹Germany has been spending more for much longer than other nations, and Energiewiende is a huge failure

🔹The quality of wind resources is location specific, with the best locations often found far from the load center where the transmission grid already exists.

🔹Dead bugs, birds and salt reduce wind power generation by 20 to 30%.

🔹Wind turbines are so much more expensive to decommission than construct, they are so often not even recycled. Here is one of hundreds of graveyards:

🔹Decommissioning wind turbines costs as much as $500,000 per wind turbine

🔹Transmission lines need to be much longer than for traditional plants, and are likely to spark firestorms causing billions in damage.

🔹Wind turbines threaten biodiversity in hundreds of protected, key biodiverse and wilderness areas

🔹Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs are extremely high.

🔹Increasingly high insurance costs from hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, defective equipment, untrained personnel and more.

🔹Blades need to be de-iced with helicopters in the winter.

🔹When oil prices rise, the cost of building and maintaining wind turbines rises.

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History, Texas, Pioneers, Genealogy

From award-winning Texas author Cynthia Leal Massey.

Wild Black Bear Sightings Increasing in Texas

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

Recent sightings of black bears in the western parts of the Texas Hill Country could indicate the dry hot conditions in the Lone Star State are causing wildlife to venture into wider migration patterns.

From April through June, rare bear sightings have occurred near Carta Valley, Barksdale, Camp Wood, west of Ingram, south of Tarpley, Asherton, Alpine, Fort Davis and Mount Livermore.

On June 20th, a black bear was sighted swimming near the shoreline of Lake Amistad.

In the past year, bears have also been observed not only on the lake, but near Fort Stockton, north of Laredo, and in nearby regions.

While no one is sure how many bears currently live in Texas, experts agree that wildfires in Mexico, as well as drought conditions in other regions, have likely caused bears to migrate to new areas, including many parts of Texas.

Michael Janis, Trans-Pecos district leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD), said dry conditions are likely sending bears looking for food. Breeding season also moved bears around.

The conservation efforts in bordering states over the last 20 years have also led to bears crossing back into Texas, especially during the summer mating season, according to TPWD.

Most of these animals wandering further into Texas are young, transient males in search of food and other bears. Males have much larger home ranges than females, and sub-adults can travel many miles to set up a new one.

Click to read bear tips for hunters, campers, hikers and homeowners

To those not aware of bears, some people become quite alarmed when they hear about sightings. However, out of approximately 36,000 people in the U.S. who are bitten annually by wildlife, black bears rank 5th behind rodents, venomous snakes, skunks, and foxes respectively.

In West Texas where Big Bend National Park (BBNP) has had more than 6,592 bear/human encounters since 1950, only 2.5 percent of those encounters were classified as aggressive interactions. Most of those occurred when the bear made contact with property containing human food. There has never been a black bear attack recorded in BBNP.

When Border Patrol agents discovered a young black bear in a tree in north Laredo last July, it likely came from Mexico, noted Eric Garza, wildlife biologist with TPWD.

Not long after,  residents of SpinTech – Myers Ranch caught a strange image on a game camera. Maybe it was an overgrown wild hog, but most believe it was a bear:

TPWD is recording more road kills of black bears between Laredo and Zapata over the decade. Garza notes they were likely males dispersing from Mexico also.

“Zapata itself probably hasn’t seen any historic sightings simply because of the lake. It’s hard for them to swim across the lake, especially when it’s up,” said Garza. “This particular animal probably came across where the water is a lot lower. Not where it’s a lake but where it’s still a river.”

In a 2011 Starr County encounter, Garza notes the bear became habituated to residents, picking up scraps of food and eating out of trash cans. In those instances the bears need to be trapped and relocated away from humans, pet food and trash.

“The first thing we need to know is any conflicts between black bears and people can be avoided very, very easily,” Garza explained. “And the easiest way to avoid any conflicts is to make sure and not leave trash out for bears to get into, and really any wildlife to get into. Don’t leave pet food out. Bring that in and secure it. Don’t leave small livestock animals like rabbits or poultry.”

Late 2021 and early 2022, TPWD biologists were monitoring multiple black bear sightings near the North Double Diamond community south of Alpine.

It is believed the bear may displaying behavior typical of hyperphagia (excessive or extreme hunger). Reports suggested that the bear were attracted to and searching for easily accessible food sources (i.e. pet food, wildlife feeders, livestock feed, etc.). 

In June, 2021, Big Bend National Park camper Valerie King took photos of a black bear in the Basin Campground:

TPWD indicates anyone encountering a black bear in a camping area should immediately deploy aversive conditioning by creating loud noises (shout, handclap, air horns, car alarm, sirens, or bang pots and pans) to startle the bear. Once the bear leaves, report the encounter to your District Biologist or TPWD Game Warden.

It is critical that the Department is able to monitor any on-going situations with full extent of known black bear encounters. 

In the 1800s, black bear lived through every ecosystem in Texas but has long been hunted down and migrated away from settlements and eventually, cities. In 2009, a black bear that wandered onto a Mernard County (Central Texas) cattle ranch was the first ever confirmed in this century in that part of the state, according to Capt. Alan Teague, a TPWD game warden.

Click to read bear tips for hunters, campers, hikers and homeowners

A Liberty County judge reputedly slaughtered 200 bears in the late 19th century, a pursuit that earned Lewis Hightower the handle “the Bear-Hunting Judge,” according to the Handbook of Texas Online.

“I practice law for recreation,” Hightower would say, “and hunt bear for a livin’.”

By the 1950s, black bears were eradicated from Texas, experts say.

The state made bear hunting illegal in 1983. That decade, they began crossing from northern Mexico into the southern reaches of West Texas.

For the past 20 years, a small population has bred there, mostly in the region’s rugged mountains. Today, some biologists believe there may be as many as 100.

But bears in Texas recently have been on the move, staging an unprecedented return to regions such as the Edwards Plateau, Piney Woods and South Texas Plains, according to Nathan Garner, another TPWD biologist.

The True Story of Smokey the Bear

Texas lists the black bear as threatened. The penalty for shooting one is a Class C misdemeanor and a fine of $500, plus a civil restitution of $11,907.50.

One of the most bizzare encounters was in 2017, when a black bear was sighted in a neighborhood between New Braunfels and Spring Branch. The alleged black bear, weighing as much as 350 lbs., ran in front of a vehicle in the early morning hours.

According to TPWD, there were 61 Black Bear sightings in 14 counties in 2018-2019. State mammologist Jonah Evans said sightings tend to increase in the fall because the bears are foraging food and trying “fatten up” before hibernating for the winter.

Transient bears from New Mexico are also occasionally reported in the Panhandle counties of Dallam, Hartley and Oldham, according to TPWD district leader Brad Simpson.

bear
The communities south of Alpine, Texas are on a Neighborhood Bear Watch. (courtesy: Texas Parks and Wildlife – Trans-Pecos Wildlife District)

A study published in The Journal of Wildlife Management documents 63 people killed in 59 incidents by non-captive black bears between 1900-2009.

Of special note is this quote:

“We judged that the bear involved acted as a predator in 88 percent of fatal incidents. Adult or subadult male bears were involved in 92 percent of fatal predatory incidents, reflecting biological and behavioral differences between male and female bears. That most fatal black bear attacks were predatory and were carried out by one bear shows that females with young are not the most dangerous black bears.”

🔹Black bears mate during the months of June and July. This might account for some of the sightings in the Texas Hill Country, as bears travel to find a mate during the summer months.

🔹State biologists believe that female black bears in Texas hibernate while males do not.

🔹The young are born in January or February, while the mother is “hibernating.” She normally gives birth to two-to-three cubs every two years.

LOUISIANA MIGRATION

🔹Louisiana Black Bear sightings have been increasing in recent years so it’s possible they are making a comeback in Eastern Texas too.

🔹Louisiana is home to the Louisiana Black Bear, a subspecies of of the American Black Bear. There’s an estimated 750-1000 bears living in the state, but they can also be found in the neighboring states of Texas, Mississippi, and possibly even Southern Arkansas.

🔹Aside from the Louisiana Bear, both the Mexican Black Bear and the New Mexico Black Bear are found in western Texas in low numbers and are also on the state endangered species list.

2018-2021 sightings

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NEW MEXICO MIGRATION

🔹The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish estimates that there are approximately 5,000-6,000 Black Bears living in all 14.6 million forested acres of New Mexico. There have been strict hunting regulations in place since 1927 in the state to help control the population of Black Bears in the state.

🔹In the early 20th century Grizzly Bears were common in the state, but now only the American Black Bear remain. They are also the state animal of New Mexico.

ARKANSAS MIGRATION

🔹Black Bears in Arkansas thrive in three places; the Ozark Highlands area, the Ouachita National Forest, and the lower White River basin. Pre-settlement there was thought to be over 50,000 bears in Arkansas, but dwindled down to just 50 bears in the 1930s. Thanks to conservation efforts and the importation of Black Bears from other areas, Arkansas is believed to have over 5,000 Black Bears now.

CAN INJURE WHEN PROVOKED

“The Black Bear is a stocky, large animal, one of the largest mammals in North America. Adults reach a length of 5 to 6 feet, height at the shoulder of 2 to 3 feet, and weigh 200-300 pounds,” notes information from Texas Park and Wildlife Department. “Although called a ‘black’ bear, colors can range from black to the occasional cinnamon brown. Front claws are generally longer than hind claws. The fur is long and coarse. Although appealing and generally harmless, Black Bears can injure humans when provoked and should be treated with caution.”

At least two subspecies of Black Bear are thought to occur in Texas: the Mexican Black Bear and the New Mexico Black Bear. Both are found in West Texas in desert scrub or woodland habitats within scattered mountain ranges, predominantly the Chisos and Guadalupe Mountains. Both subspecies are state-listed as endangered in Texas.

Colleen Olfenbuttel, the Wildlife Commission’s black bear and furbearer biologist, offers some advice about how to co-exist with black bears.

“Most bears that wander into a residential area will quickly retreat to their natural habitat, particularly if no food source is around,” Olfenbuttel said. “Bears have adapted to living near people; now it’s up to us to adapt to living near bears.”

BearWise has six Basics the public can use to prevent potential conflicts and live responsibly with bears:

• Never feed or approach a bear. Bears will defend themselves if a person gets too close, so don’t risk your safety and theirs.

• Secure food, garbage and recycling. Place trash outside as late as possible on the morning of trash pick-up — not the night before.

• Remove bird feeders when bears are active. Birdseed, other grains and hummingbird feeders have high calorie content making them very attractive to bears.

• Never leave pet food outdoors.

• Clean and store grills.

• Alert neighbors to bear activity.

“While these young bears (usually May-August), typically males, may appear to be wandering aimlessly around, they are not necessarily lost,” Olfenbuttel said. “Most are simply exploring their new surroundings and will move on, particularly if they are left alone and there is no food around.”

Unlike brown bears, black bears are omnivorous creatures that rarely pose a threat to humans, pets, or livestock. Like any large mammal, however, humans must take steps to be aware and coexist with black bears.

Black bears diet is very much like a raccoon’s.

🔹Up to 80 percent of their diet is plant matter, and they often scavenge the rest from carcasses of dead animals.

🔹In many circumstances, they will hunt for insects and worms for the “meat based” part of their diet.

🔹They have been known to kill larger mammals and even livestock. This is occurs mostly during late spring and early summer, when bears become active after hibernating, and juveniles “leave home.” This is when food requirements are high, and bears will find the most nutritious food they can.

🔹If there is a lack of fruits, berries, and other plant matter, they may feed on other animals. 

Signs of black bears 

If you suspect bears in your area, pay careful attention to signs such as, tracks, scat, and territorial markings on trees. Although you may not see the animal, the evidence of their presence is usually clear. Take pictures of suspected bear sign using a ruler or other standard item for scale and send them to your local biologist for interpretation. 

Bear tracks stand out and are unlike any other you might encounter. Bears use their teeth and claws to mark trees or other surfaces to mark territory.

Black Bears of East Texas. Photos provided by the East Texas Black Bear Task Force.
Black Bears of East Texas. Photos provided by the East Texas Black Bear Task Force.Hardin County News

BEAR ENCOUNTERS

If you encounter a bear, TPWD offers this advice:

  • If a bear regularly visits your deer stand, scare it with rocks, a slingshot or air horn.
  • If you encounter a bear at close range, talk in a calm manner while backing away slowly. Do not make direct eye contact
  • Do not run. Running can trigger a bear’s chase instinct.
  • Stand your ground and raise your arms if a bear approaches you, making yourself appear larger. Yell at the bear to scare it off.
  • Fight back aggressively with anything available if attacked. Let bears know that you are not an easy prey. Do not play dead.

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How to Prepare for Bears in the Wild and at Home

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

HUNTERS, CAMPERS, HIKERS & HOMEOWNERS BEWARE

HUNTING

Hunters must remember that areas where they leave game animal remains will attract bears.

🔹This carrion is an easy meal that bears will eagerly consume.

🔹No matter what time of year you hunt, it is possible you could encounter a bear. Although contact is minimal in the winter, due to hibernation, be aware of your surroundings, especially in remote locations that may contain dens with sleeping bears.

🔹Bear-proofing wildlife feeding stations, such as deer feeders, can be difficult. Because hunters want game to have access to feed, but want to exclude black bears, the best options involve limiting access. Unless they are protected by an electric fence that deer can jump, gravity feeders should likely be removed in favor of spin-cast feeders.

🔹The base of spin-cast feeders should be at least 10 feet off the ground, and suspended from a cross-member that is least 4 feet from the post that supports it. Alternatively, hunters may electrify tripod spin-cast or gravity feeders, as well as providing electric fencing.

🔹Electric fencing may be permanent, similar to systems designed for livestock, or be portable, such as “back-country bear fencing” often used to secure camp sites. These portable systems are available from many outdoor companies. They are powered by D-cell batteries and use lightweight posts and wire. Whether suspending feed or electrifying, take care to prevent damage and the loss of feed.

CAMPING

🔹Campers should collect trash nightly and hang it high enough from a tree or other structure that a bear cannot reach it, or climb to it. Ten feet off ground level and four feet from any branches is generally sufficient.

🔹Sweet-smelling items such as perfumes, insect repellants, and candy attract bears.

🔹The smell of camp cooking can also attract bears. It is wise to locate your cooking site 100 yards from your sleeping area. Even the smell of food on clothes can attract bears, so change clothes before sleeping if you cook for the camp.

🔹Coolers of food are easy targets for bears—keep them inside vehicles or otherwise inaccessible. Although some coolers are rated as bear-safe, black bears will still cause damage trying to get in them.

HIKING

🔹Hikers should be noisy in areas where black bears are present.

🔹A startled bear is a dangerous bear, and will have the same reaction as any animal when frightened. Although they might flee, they might also display defensive behaviors such as bluff charges or teeth clacking. This is especially possible for a female with cubs.

Bear-proofing around the house 

Human-bear relations are most problematic around private homes.

🔹Bears, like raccoons, are opportunistic omnivores who enjoy human garbage. Homeowners should minimize exposing garbage to bears.

🔹A good first step is to secure trash cans with certified bear-proof covers. You can also contact your waste disposal company to request that they upgrade community dumpsters to be bear-proof.

🔹Minimize areas where you dump cooking grease, scraps, and reduce access to compost piles. 

Black Bears of East Texas. Photos provided by the East Texas Black Bear Task Force.

🔹Other food sources include bird feeders and other wildlife feed, fallen fruit from trees, pet foods, and barbecue pits.

🔹Wood piles attract rodents, which can be a food source. Bears will quickly assess these sources come to them for food. If you choose to feed wildlife in “bear country,” move the feed frequently to prevent bears from becoming habituated to one area. 

🔹It may be surprising, but a closed door, high window, or low wall often will not deter bears. Livestock and pet feed stored in outbuildings are easy, high-energy sources of nutrition for black bears. 

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Expert Observations About Our Moon

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

Always fascinated by the Moon—perhaps because being a Baby Boomer, tales from my Chickasaw-Choctaw great grandmother Margaret Ralph-Morgan and being around during the early days of manned American space exploration–were influences.

We never took the Moon for granted. Not much in my experiences matched the 1969 landing on the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Meeting and interviewing Aldrin was definitely a highlight years later.

Jack Dennis with Buzz Aldrin

Here is a collection of interesting quotes from scientists, authors, researchers, NASA insiders and star-gazers relating to the enigmatic and often inexplicable nature of the moon:

Isaac Asimov,
American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University and Science Fiction writer. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time.

“We cannot help but come to the conclusion that the Moon by rights ought not to be there. The fact that it is, is one of the strokes of luck almost too good to accept… Small planets, such as Earth, with weak gravitational fields, might well lack satellites… … In general then, when a planet does have satellites, those satellites are much smaller than the planet itself. Therefore, even if the Earth has a satellite, there would be every reason to suspect… that at best it would be a tiny world, perhaps 30 miles in diameter. But that is not so. Earth not only has a satellite, but it is a giant satellite, 2160 miles in diameter. How is it then, that tiny Earth has one? Amazing.”

“The Moon, which has no atmosphere and no magnetic field, is basically a freak of nature”

Irwin Shapiro,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

“The best possible explanation for the Moon is observational error – the Moon doesn’t exist.’

“The Moon is bigger than it should be, apparently older than it should be and much lighter in mass than it should be. It occupies an unlikely orbit and is so extraordinary that all existing explanations for its presence are fraught with difficulties are none of them could be considered remotely watertight.”

Christopher Knight and Alan Bulter
Book: Who Built the Moon?

The Moon has astonishing synchronicity with the Sun. When the Sun is at its lowest and weakest in mid-winter, the Moon is at its highest and brightest, and the reverse occurs in mid-summer. Both set at the same point on the horizon at the equinoxes and at the opposite point at the solstices. What are the chances that the Moon would naturally find an orbit so perfect that it would cover the Sun at an eclipse and appear from Earth to be the same size? What are chances that the alignments would be so perfect at the equinoxes and solstices?

Farouk El Baz,
NASA

“If water vapour is coming from the Moon’s interior is this serious. It means that there is a drastic distinction between the different phases of the lunar interior – that the interior is quite different from what we have seen on the surface.”

Mikhail Vasin, Alexander Shcherbakov,
Societ Academy of Sciences, 1970.

“Is the moon a creation of an alien intelligence?”

Dr Harold Urey,
Nobel Prize for Chemistry

“I’m terribly puzzled by the rocks from the Moon and in particular of their titanium content.”

Dr S Ross Taylor,
Geochemist of lunar chemical analysis,

Said the problem was that maria plains the size of Texas had to be covered with melted rock containing fluid titanium. He said you would not expect titanium ever to be hot enough to do that, even on Earth, and no one has ever suggested that the Moon was hotter than the Earth.

“What could distribute titanium in this way? Highly advanced technology developed and operated by entities that are immensely more technologically advance than humans.”

Dr. Gordon MacDonald,
NASA

“it would seem that the Moon is more like a hollow than a homogenous sphere’. He surmised that the data must have been wrong – but it wasn’t.”

Carl Sagan,
Cosmologist,

“A natural satellite cannot be a hollow object.”

Dr. Sean C Solomon,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

“The Lunar Orbiter experiments had vastly improved knowledge of the Moon’s gravitational field and indicated the frightening possibility that the Moon might be hollow.”

University of Arizona Lon Hood
“We knew that the Moon’s core was small, but we didn’t know it was this small… This really does add weight to the idea that the Moon’s origin is unique, unlike any other terrestrial body.”

NASA scientists
The Apollo 12 mission to the Moon in November 1969 set up seismometers and then intentionally crashed the Lunar Module causing an impact equivalent to one ton of TNT. The shockwaves built up for eight minutes, and NASA scientists said the Moon ‘rang like a bell.

Maurice Ewing,
American geophysicist and oceanographer

“As for the meaning of it, I’d rather not make an interpretation right now, but it is as though someone had struck a bell, say, in the belfry of a church, a single blow and found that the reverberation from it continued for 30 minutes.”

Ken Johnson,
Supervisor of the Data and Photo Control department during the Apollo missions

“The Moon not only rang like a bell, but the whole Moon wobbled in such a precise way that it was almost as though it had gigantic hydraulic damper struts inside it.”

Moon rocks have been found to contain processed metals, including brass and mica, and the elements Uranium 236 and Neptunium 237 that have never been found to occur naturally.

Dr. D L Anderson,
Professor of geophysics and director of the seismological laboratory,
California Institute of Technology

“The Moon is made inside out and that its inner and outer compositions should be the other way around.”

Dr. Robin Brett,
NASA Scientist

“It seems much easier to explain the nonexistence of the moon than its existence.”

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Biden, ‘Big Climate’ & DC Collude: Hoaxes For Profits

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

The D.C. Climate of Corruption

In March 2019 near the South Pole, a Russian ship carrying scientists and tourists traveled to the bottom of the Earth so pro-climate change alarmists could gather more ammunition to document global warming and shrinking ice caps. With hundreds of thousands of dollars pumped into the expedition, the return on investment backfired.  The ship became stuck on ice that was thicker than at any time since records started being kept in 1978.

A year later, also in December, a Russian military vessel, Sparta-III became lodged in ice due to record breaking cold with temperatures of -58F and below reported.

Then, in November 2021, 18 Russian cargo ships were trapped, some for weeks, by another freeze.

It seems like these Big Climate scientists and propagandists would have learned a thing or two about previous attempts. Like the one in December 2013, when the Russian vessel M.V. Akademik Shokalskiy, with 74 people on board for a polar expedition, was stuck in ice near Antarctica for days.

Similar to what the world is currently experiencing with the false narratives of government and Big Pharma related to disease, viruses and vaccines, the Big Climate industry has pulling the same types of scams for decades.

Unfortunately for the John Kerrys and Al Gores of the world, the real truth is that Arctic ice “recededing” wasn’t accurate. In fact, between 2012 and 2013, the ice actually grew by 29 percent into an unbroken patch more than half the size of Europe and within 5 percent of what it was 33 years ago, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Over time, millions of Americans have wised up to Big Pharma and Big Climate. They have especially learned and rightfully concluded that “climate change is a hoax.”

The economic consequences of Biden’s global warming policies can already be seen in electricity and fuel prices, which are currently the highest in U.S. history.  Remarkably, Biden’s global warming policies are increasing electricity prices even while new natural gas discoveries, revolutionary advances in natural gas production technologies, and a dramatic resultant decline in natural gas prices would otherwise spur a dramatic decline in electricity prices.

The Biden Administration habitually recite Big Climate global warming alarmists who argue that changes in the biosphere make it richer, lusher, and more conducive to life are changes to be feared and opposed.

If barren ecosystems and deserts constitute their ideal planet, then the alarmist fears of more plant life make sense. On the contrary, global warming realists understand a climate more conducive to richer, more abundant plant life is beneficial rather than harmful.

We learned and agree that severe storms, floods and agricultural losses do indeed cost a great deal of money, but such extreme weather events – and their resulting costs – are dramatically declining as the Earth modestly warms. 

Documented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, severe storms are becoming less frequent and severe as the Earth modestly warms.

This is especially evident regarding hurricane and tornado activity, which are both at historic lows. Similarly, scientific measurements and peer-reviewed studies report no increase in flooding events regarding natural-flowing rivers and streams. Any increase in flooding activity is due to human alterations of river and stream flow rather than precipitation changes.

🔹The fact is NASA satellite instruments have documented a great greening of the Earth, with foliage gains most prevalent in previously arid, semi-desert regions.

🔹Although forests and plant life are expanding globally, this is particularly true in the western United States. 

🔹Regarding food and water supplies, global crop production has soared as the Earth gradually warms. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is essential to plant life, and adding more of it to the atmosphere enhances plant growth and crop production. Longer growing seasons and fewer frost events also benefit plant growth and crop production.

🔹Big Pharma and their puppet politicians and universities make a big deal about icebergs breaking off the Antarctic ice sheet. They deliberately ignore the overall growth of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Icebergs break off the Antarctic ice sheet every year, with or without global warming, particularly in the Antarctic summer. However, a particular iceberg – no matter how large – breaking off the Antarctic ice sheet does not necessarily result in “Shrinking Glaciers.” To the contrary, the Antarctic Ice Sheet has been growing at a steady and substantial pace ever since NASA satellites first began measuring the Antarctic ice sheet in 1979. 

🔹Big Climate’s assertion that polar ice sheets are melting is simply false. Although they often point to a modest recent shrinkage in the Arctic ice sheet, that decline has been completely offset by ice sheet expansion in the Antarctic. Cumulatively, polar ice sheets have not declined at all since NASA satellite instruments began precisely measuring them 39 years ago.

🔹Objective data show there has been a gradual increase in global precipitation and soil moisture as our planet warms. Warmer temperatures evaporate more water from the oceans, which in turn stimulates more frequent precipitation over continental land masses. The result of this enhanced precipitation is an improvement in soil moisture at almost all sites in the Global Soil Moisture Data Bank.

🔹The Biden and leftist’s preferred electricity source – wind power – kills nearly 1 million bats every year (not to mention the more than 500,000 birds killed annually) in the United States alone. This huge death toll occurs even though wind power produces just 3% of U.S. electricity.

Popular meme

🔹Lyme Disease is far more common in northern, cooler regions of the United States than in southern, warmer regions. Asserting, without any supporting data or evidence, that a disease that prospers in cool climates will become more prevalent as a result of global warming defies objective data and common sense.

While it might sound cynical, global warming has been used politically in order for governments to gain control over the private sector…As a former government employee, I can attest to the continuing angst civil servants have over remaining relevant to the taxpayers who pay their salaries, so there is a continuing desire to increase the role of government in our daily lives.

In 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was given a legitimate mandate to clean up our air and water. I remember the pollution crises we were experiencing in the 1960s. But as those problems were solved, the EPA found itself in the precarious position of possibly outliving its usefulness.

So, the EPA embarked on a mission of ever-increasing levels of regulation. Any manmade substance that had any evidence of being harmful in large concentrations was a target for regulation.

I was at a Carolina Air Pollution Control Association (CAPCA) meeting years ago where an EPA employee stated to the group that “we must never stop making the environment cleaner” (or something to that effect).

There were gasps from the audience.

You see, there is a legitimate role of the EPA to regulate clearly dangerous or harmful levels of manmade pollutants.

But it is not physically possible to make our environment 100% clean.

As we try to make the environment ever cleaner, the cost goes up dramatically.

As any economist will tell you, money you spend on one thing is not available for other things, like health care. So, the risk of over-regulating pollution is that you end up killing more people than you save, because if there is one thing we know kills millions of people every year, it is poverty.

Global warming has become a reason for government to institute policies, whether they be a carbon tax or whatever, using a regulatory mechanism which the public would never agree to if they knew (1) how much it will cost them in reduced prosperity, and (2) how little effect it will have on the climate system.

So, the policy prescription does indeed become a hoax, because the public is being misled into believing that their actions are going to somehow make the climate “better”.

Even using the IPCC’s (and thus the EPA’s) numbers, there is nothing we can do energy policy-wise that will have any measurable effect on global temperatures.

In this regard, politicians using global warming as a policy tool to solve a perceived problem is indeed a hoax. The energy needs of humanity are so large that Bjorn Lomborg has estimated that in the coming decades it is unlikely that more than about 20% of those needs can be met with renewable energy sources.

Whether you like it or not, we are stuck with fossil fuels as our primary energy source for decades to come. Deal with it. And to the extent that we eventually need more renewables, let the private sector figure it out. Energy companies are in the business of providing energy, and they really do not care where that energy comes from.

Dr. Roy Spencer, former NASA climatologist

And here are words of knowledge from another former NASA scientist:

“The term ‘climate change’ is meaningless. The Earth’s climate has been changing since time immemorial, that is since the Earth was formed 1,000 million years ago. The theory of ‘man-made climate change’ is an unsubstantiated hypothesis [about] our climate [which says it] has been adversely affected by the burning of fossil fuels in the last 100 years, causing the average temperature on the earth’s surface to increase very slightly but with disastrous environmental consequences.

The theory is that the CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuel is the ‘greenhouse gas’ causes ‘global warming’ — in fact, water is a much more powerful greenhouse gas and there is 20 time more of it in our atmosphere (around one per cent of the atmosphere) whereas CO2 is only 0.04 per cent.


There is no reproducible scientific evidence CO2 has significantly increased in the last 100 years. Anecdotal evidence doesn’t mean anything in science, it’s not significant…”

Dr. Leslie Woodcock, former NASA

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H-E-B Partners With Texas Parks and Wildlife to Conserve and Protect

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

As far as I can remember, H-E-B Food-Drugs, a San Antonio based company in Texas has consistently been a strong proponent and practitioner for the environment. I retired from this outstanding retailer in 2009 as head of their Facilities Management Division and saw first hand how they are regularly recognized for its commitment to environmental sustainability.

🔹In 2021, H-E-B recycled more than 636 million pounds of cardboard, plastics, office paper, food waste, metal, and truck tires.

🔹Among its endeavor to minimize waste in 2021, H-E-B recycled 54 million pounds of food into animal feed and compost and recycled 17.5 million pounds of plastic.

🔹That same year, H-E-B’s recycling efforts saved the equivalent of 11 million trees, 1.6 million barrels of oil, and enough energy to power more than 83,000 homes for an entire year.

As part of H-E-B’s Our Texas, Our Future mission, and with support from Field & Future by H-E-B brand products, the retailer is partnering with Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and their efforts to conserve wildlife, habitats, and natural resources in Texas.

- H-E-B Newsroom

H-E-B is a longtime partner of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, and the company’s commitment to environmental sustainability along with Field & Future by H-E-B will support efforts such as:

🔹coastal conservation along the Texas Gulf Coast,

🔹Black Bear restoration in West Texas,

🔹the establishment of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park in North Texas, the state’s newest state park expected to open in 2023.  

Field & Future by H-E-B, which the company launched last year, is an environmentally minded brand of household, personal care and baby products designed to be clean and green.

The brand is made with recycled or recyclable content, biodegradable formulas or plant-based ingredients, and without over 165 harsh chemicals. Currently, there are nearly 100 Field & Future by H-E-B products on shelf, including dish soap, body wash, bath tissue, baby diapers, as well as trash bags and bags for recyclables, which are made from up to 65 percent and 30 percent post-consumer recycled plastic from H-E-B facilities, respectively.

“H-E-B is an iconic Texas company, and this new partnership with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, our official non-profit partner, is incredibly exciting,” said Texas Parks and & Wildlife Department Executive Director Carter Smith. “It’s fitting that the Field & Future line of products will benefit conservation projects across Texas, and we’re deeply grateful for this new partnership.”

- H-E-B Newsroom

With Earth Day around the corner, H-E-B Partners (employees) across the state are committed to taking their own steps to beautify Texas. Leading up to and following Earth Day, Partners will volunteer at outdoor events, tree plantings and community cleanups. Many H-E-B stores across the state also will host in-store events to celebrate Earth Day with their customers and communities.

Throughout the year, H-E-B works to champion sustainability initiatives throughout its own operations and across the Lone Star State.

In 2021, H-E-B became part of How2Recycle, a program that places clear, easy-to-read labels on products to let customers know if the packaging can be recycled, which parts are recyclable, and importantly, how to prepare material for recycling to reduce contamination.

The How2Recycle labels are already on more than 1,700 H-E-B branded items, which include H-E-B, Hill Country Fare, H-E-B Select Ingredients, H-E-B Organics, and Central Market.

Furthering its commitment to supporting sustainable efforts within the community, H-E-B gifted $135,000 to support the creation of a community recycling center in Ingleside. Slated to open in the summer, this will be the city’s first ever recycling center, which will service several communities near the Gulf Coast town.

“We know H-E-B and our customers have a shared commitment in protecting the land, water and air of Texas for generations to come,” said Winell Herron, H-E-B Group Vice President of Public Affairs, Diversity and Environmental Affairs. “As H-E-B works to reduce our packaging footprint and increase packaging recyclability, we also look for ways to support community access to recycling. We’re excited to partner with Keep Texas Beautiful and the City of Ingleside to make recycling available for the first time for 65,000 Texans.”  

H-E-B customers also can support sustainability efforts through its annual donation campaign that benefits EarthShare of Texas, a nonprofit that supports more than 70 respected conservation groups. From April 13 through May 24, customers can donate $1, $3 or $5 online at heb.com or in store at checkout, which will benefit the nonprofit organization. From the donation campaign, more than $1 million has gone to support the nonprofit.

Since 2012, H-E-B has contributed more than $20 million to over 500 environmental organizations in land and water conservation, habitat and coastal preservation, and community cleanups. This includes giving more than $2 million in grants to organizations such as Keep Texas Beautiful, Texas Conservation Fund, and the Nature Conservancy in Texas.

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The True Story of Fire Fighting Smokey Bear

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

He is not Smokey ‘The’ Bear and Other Fun Facts

The start of World War II meant that many firefighters and other able-bodied men were deployed, leaving communities to manage wildfires themselves. .

The head of the Forest Service at that time, Lyle F. Watts, decided to attack the wildfire problem by educating the public about their role in fire prevention. Watts invited the Ad Council to join the Forest Service in this new ad campaign.Watts and team soon realized that they needed a symbol or character to represent their fire prevention campaign. A forest animal would be ideal.

The Disney Studios offered one of their characters to be the “face” of the fire prevention plan. The movie, Bambi, enjoyed widespread popularity at the time, so the deer Bambi represented the original ad campaign—but Disney’s licensing contract lasted just one year.

Seeing an overwhelmingly successful first year, Watts and his team chose a bear to replace Bambi.

Two decades before, on a July morning in 1922, a case of magnesium powder exploded in a warehouse in New York’s Greenwich Village. The resulting fire was devasting and claimed the life of a heroic firefighter named “Smokey” Joe Martin.

On August 9, 1944, the first Smokey Bear poster appeared. The bear was named in honor of “Smokey” Joe, and his first piece of public service artwork depicted the animal in his iconic hat, dousing a fire with a bucket of water.

A historic Smokey the Bear poster

Artist Albert Staehle painted this first Smokey Bear poster.

The ‘50s and ‘60s brought Smokey’s “ABC” campaign. This was a national push to educate the public about wildfire prevention in three easy steps, and it was broadcast to American homes through radio and TV spots.

Smokey 2

It wasn’t long before more posters of Smokey appeared. The bear gained widespread popularity. Soon Smokey Bear was featured on everything from comic books to toys. He was an undisputed success.

A real Smokey Bear

In 1950, a wildfire burned in New Mexico’s Capitan Mountains. Firefighters there found a young bear cub clinging to a tree branch. Firefighters presumed the cub climbed the tree to escape the raging fire. The little bear was alive, but severely burned. Firefighters rescued the cub and aptly named him Smokey.

News of a real Smokey Bear soon spread across the country. When Smokey had sufficiently recovered from his ordeal, he was moved to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where he continued to play a role in educating people about fire prevention.

To handle all of his fan mail–up to 13,000 letters a week–the U.S. Postal Service set up his own personal zip code, 20252, for his area in the zoo. The zip code was decommissioned in 1994, but fortunately brought back in honor of Smokey’s 70th birthday.

When the real Smokey Bear died, his body was taken back to the Capitan Mountains for burial in the State Historical Park.

Smokey carried his “only you can prevent forest fires” message into the early 2000s and placed the responsibility on us all to be careful around the campfire. Additionally, the shift in the use of “forest fires” to “wildfires” in Smokey’s messaging is present, as well.

Today, new Public Service Announcements to educate the public on different ways that wildfires are caused, including hot coals, dragging chains, and burning debris. Smokey’s wildfire prevention message was already resonating with audiences—now, they just needed actionable steps to take.

Today’s Smokey Bear

Other Smokey Bear facts

  • The Smokey Bear campaign is the longest-running Public Service Advertisement campaign in U.S. history.
  • In 1953, the Ideal Toy Company made a Smokey Bear doll. Included with the doll was a card that when mailed back gave children an official “Junior Forest Ranger” identification card. Within two years, over half a million kids had applied and received the unofficial honor.

  • Since its development in the 1940s, it’s estimated that the Smokey Bear ad campaign has reduced the number of acres lost to wildfires by 15.6 million annually.
  • Smokey does not have a middle name. (It’s Smokey Bear. Not Smokey “The” Bear.) A song about the forest icon added “The” to his name in order to make the lyrics and melody sync better. 

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The Dolphin Cried, Then Enzo Dived

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

The famous Italian diver Enzo Mallorca recalled “when I first started thinking about setting freediving records, the medical experts kept saying that a man could not stay alive diving deeper than 165ft [50m] because his lungs would not make it.”

“Doctors were creating barriers for us and I admit that at the time it worried me,” he admitted. “Even Aristotle claimed a man could dive no deeper than 30 ft.”

In September 1960, he successfully descended to a depth of 45m, in the process setting the first of 17 wworld records in the variable buoyancy category.

Two months later, he extended this to 49m.

Enzo Mallorca died at 86 in 2016.

In August 1961 he set a new record of 50m in the “constant weight” category, in which there are no additional buoyancy aids and the diver must descend and ascend with their own fin power. The Italian media dubbed him Lord of the Abysses.

Years later, Enzo dove into the sea of Syracuse and was talking to his daughter Rosanna who was aboard the boat. Ready to go in, he felt something slightly hit his back.

He turned and saw a dolphin. Then he realized that the dolphin did not want to play but to express something.

The animal dove and Enzo followed.

At a depth of about 12 meters, trapped in an abandoned net, there was another dolphin. Enzo quickly asked his daughter to grab the diving knives. Soon, the two of them managed to free the dolphin, which, at the end of the ordeal, emerged, issued an “almost human cry” (describes Enzo).

Rosanna and Enzo

(A dolphin can stay under water for up to 10 minutes, then it drowns.)

The released dolphin was helped to the surface by Enzo, Rosanna and the other dolphin. That’s when the surprise came: she was pregnant!

The male circled them, and then stopped in front of Enzo, touched his cheek (like a kiss), in a gesture of gratitude and then they both swam off.

Enzo Mallorca once said, “Until man learns to respect and speak to the animal world, he can never know his true role on Earth.”

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Wildlife Vaccine Airdrops to Combat Rabies Resume Along Texas Border

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

The Texas Department of State Health Services’ (DSHS) Oral Rabies Vaccination Program resumes flights Jan. 12 from Zapata, Texas. This successful program, now in its 28th year, led to the elimination of the domestic dog-coyote and the Texas fox rabies virus variants from the state.

DSHS will utilize aircraft from Dynamic Aviation Group, Inc. and a Texas Wildlife Services helicopter to airdrop more than 1.17 million baits containing rabies vaccine in 19 counties along the southern Texas border. The project is slated to run for two weeks. Local and regional public health personnel will commence ground distribution of additional vaccine baits in South Texas and El Paso County in late January.

🔹The first ORVP in southern Texas was initiated in 1995 following an outbreak caused by a domestic dog/coyote variant of the rabies virus, while a gray fox rabies outbreak occurring in West-Central Texas led to an ORVP the following year.

🔹Results were immediate. Texas experienced 122 cases of the dog/coyote rabies variant in 1994, the year before the first vaccine drop, but then recorded zero cases by 2000.

🔹Only two cases have been documented since then – one in 2001 and one in 2004. Both of those cases occurred within a mile of the Rio Grande River, which is why DSHS concentrates the baits in that area to help vaccinate animals that may enter the country across the southern border.

“The annual rabies vaccine/bait distribution along the border of Texas and Mexico is critical for the protection of humans, pets and livestock in Texas,” said Dr. Susan Rollo, ORVP director. “The maintenance distribution levels help keep the U.S. free of the canine strain.”

The vaccine baits to be dropped are small, plastic packets dipped in fish oil and coated with fishmeal crumbles to attract coyotes, gray foxes and other wild carnivores. Extensive research across a wide variety of species has proven the vaccine to be safe; only non-infectious portions of the rabies virus are used. Neither humans nor animals are in danger of developing rabies if they are exposed to the vaccine.

🔹Rabies typically spreads through the bite of an infected animal. If a person or animal exhibits symptoms of rabies, it is nearly always fatal.

🔹Immunizing domestic animals like pets is critical to help stop the spread of the disease and protect the animals and their owners.

🔹Skunks and bats today are the most significant sources of rabies in Texas.

Airdrop operations will be launched from Zapata County Airport, Del Rio International Airport and Alpine-Casparis Municipal Airport.

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Look Up in the Sky: January 2022

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mars and the Moon Come Together With Venus Nearby

Venus will have an interesting month. Today and tomorrow (January 8-9), it’s going to be closer to Earth than any planet has been in a century.

🔹It’ll be just 0.266 Astronomical Units or 24.7 million miles away, according to Space.com.

🔹It’ll then appear in the pre-dawn sky later in the month, brightening significantly. You’ll be able to see Venus and the crescent moon together in the pre-dawn sky on January 29-30. They won’t be on top of each other, but they should make a nice tableau in conjunction with Mars, which will be even closer to the moon than Venus. 

All Month: Mars is Back

Mars is coming back into view for us earthlings. It passed out of view behind the sun and is just returning. The red planet will continue to get brighter and rise in the sky over the coming months.

The moon will cross the asterism over a series of nights, as it does each month through the winter, providing a great opportunity to watch the movement of the sky across nights.

🔹The winter hexagon will sit high in the southeastern sky.

🔹If you’re under exceptionally dark skies, the Milky Way cuts through the winter hexagon as well.

🔹The moon hits the western side of the hexagon on January 13 and will trek across it until the night of January 16.

January 17: Full Wolf Moon

The full moon alights on January 17. It’s often called the Wolf Moon and its arrival means you’re going to have some light interference if you’re trying to go out stargazing. 

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Democrats $3.5 Billion ‘Infastrucure’ Package Is Shocking

Posted on by Texans Jack & Dodie

The $3.5 Trillion Human Infrastructure package includes an animal agriculture tax of $2,600 per head of cattle? $500 for swine. This is the Democrats war on ranchers and meat.

Don’t believe the $3.5 trillion figure propaganda from Democrats and Mainstream Media. According to several studies, including the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the true cost is nearer to $5.5 trillion. Even liberal The New York Times reported this week that the current bill is “likely to cost well over $3.5 trillion.”

Figuring out the true cost could take some time. The bill, formally known as the Build Back Better Act, weighs in at 2,465 pages and 444,311 words.

This and other atrocities are slowly being revealed as more politicians and voters finally have an opportunity to read it. Here are just some of the items in the spending bill.

🔹Over $7.5 billion for a “Civilian Climate Corps.”

🔹More than $7 billion for upgrading the U.S. Postal Service to electric vehicles.

🔹$5 billion for environmental and “climate justice” block grants.

🔹$1.4 billion in “climate change research.”

🔹$3 billion for a tree-planting program “with a priority for projects that increase tree equity.”

How many trees did it take to make this poster?

🔹$4 billion for “neighborhood access and equity grants.”

🔹$2.8 billion to increase the capacity of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to give lawful permanent residence to illegal immigrants into the U.S.

🔹$198 million in funding for “school leadership programs” dedicated to school principals for development and training programs. Can you say Critical Race Theory?

🔹$1 billion for an”electric vehicle charging equity program.”

🔹A boost of $78.94 billion over the next 10 years to go to the Internal Revenue Service expand audits and tax enforcement activities. This includes hiring thousands more employees and an additional $410 million for IRS oversight over taxpayers.

🔹$25 million would go to “nonprofit organizations” to develop “anti-discrimination and bias training” for the health care sector, and another $15 million for national resource centers “focused on providing services for older individuals who are underserved due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

🔹$300 million to hire more federal government workers to enforce more “environmental reviews.” This includes purchasing new equipment and assets.

🔹$5 million to implement electronic voting systems for union elections. Do I hear “Dominion?”

🔹Union members would each get a new IRS deduction of up to $250 for dues paid to a labor organization,

Observers see this as one of many provisions to pay back unions for their votes. “extracurricular activities” and affairs to support the controversial election of Joe Biden and Democrats in 2020.

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From award-winning Texas author Cynthia Leal Massey.