The police described it as an armed robbery and a hostage situation. Before dawn on Sunday, May, 8th, two robbers stormed into a Walgreens store wearing masks and gloves and carrying guns. Video cameras in the store on Napier Avenue in Benton Township, Michigan captured the whole event. Fortunately, though, Jeremy Hoven, a pharmacist and one of the employees in the store, had a permitted concealed handgun with him. Unfortunately, Walgreens fired Hoven for having a gun at work.  More here

A HISTORIC race in Bampton will go off with less of a bang this year after police confiscated the starting pistol.

The Original Great Shirt Race is run between the village’s pubs and is believed to date back centuries.

Traditionally, it was always started by firing a 12-bore shotgun into the air, but police stopped that practice in 2000.

The shotgun was replaced with a starting pistol but now Government legislation means this year’s event will start with an airhorn.

The pistol was confiscated from race starter John Buckingham over concerns it could be converted into a lethal weapon.

The 2011 52 Gun Raffle sponsored by Vance Outdoors, Inc. is about to begin! You could win a Benelli Super Black Eagle, an Ithaca Featherlight and even great bows from Parker, TenPoint, Barnett and Horton in the 2011, U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance’s 52 Gun Raffle.
Beginning June 6th, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance will give a gun or bow away each week for 52 weeks for a total value of over $19,000! Tickets are going fast, so enter today or you could be shut out of 52 chances to win a great gun or bow!
Here’s how it works:
There are only 1,000 tickets sold with each ticket having a unique three digit number (000-999). Each Monday evening at 7:29 p.m. est., the Ohio Lottery’s Pick 3 drawing is announced. If your ticket matches that week’s numbers, you win that gun or bow. Even better, there is no limit to how many times you can win. So order your tickets today before someone else gets your lucky number!
Enter today!
This is the last call for ticket buyers before the drawing starts. Each ticket is $50, which is less than $1 a week and you can buy as many as you want.  You can enter online at www.ussportsmen.org/52gun  If you do not live in Ohio, you MUST purchase your ticket online.
All proceeds benefit the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, which protects your rights to hunt, fish and trap. Pass the flyers out to your friends and family and do your part to protect our outdoor heritage and win great prizes. Order your tickets today!
(Out of state participants must purchase tickets via the USSA website.  Void where prohibited by law.)

Let’s not forget flag etiquette by flying the flag properly on Monday, May 30th, Memorial Day. 

The flag is to be lowered to half staff at sunrise and raised to full staff at precisely 12 o’clock noon.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state Senate has passed a bill that would curtail wildlife officials’ unpopular earn-a-buck program and scale back October gun deer hunts.  Read more here…

By Glen Wunderlich

The Natural Resources Commission (NRC) has proposed to remove the deer baiting and feeding ban in the Lower Peninsula, but hold on there, Quick Draw.  For now, it’s just a proposal and a vote will be taken June 9 in Lansing at the NRC meeting.

According to Mary Dettloff, DNR Public Information Officer, the change would allow hunters and other animal lovers to place two gallons of bait (or feed, if you will) per hunting/feeding spot – the same regulation that is currently in place in the Upper Peninsula, and as had been in effect before the ban in 2008.  The only exception would be the bovine tuberculosis area in northeast lower Michigan.  In addition, the proposal directs the DNR to spend $50,000 this year on planting wildlife food plots on state-owned hunting land in the bovine tuberculosis area.

This is great news for the instant-gratification hunting fraternity that doesn’t allow itself enough time to pursue whitetail deer Read more

May 19 2011

Renewing the 50% Pledge

Today marks the first anniversary of our HumaneWatch 50% Pledge. One year ago we promised to shut down this website for good if the Humane Society of the United States made one simple promise: to give 50 percent of its budget to pet shelters. (Currently, HSUS shares less than 1 percent of its budget with hands-on pet care and adoption organizations.)

We have yet to hear anything but silence from HSUS and its CEO, Wayne Pacelle.

Sure, it’s a little discouraging. We’d be justified if we were harsh. But let’s give HSUS a break. When you spend $121 million a year, it’s not like you can just go from 0 to 60 at the drop of the hat.

After all, HSUS needs to be “humane” and pay its 30-odd salaried lawyers. The group’s lobbyists have mouths to feed. And—c’mon!—redirecting that $2.5 million earmarked for HSUS’s pension plan? Retired executives previously making six-figure salaries have to enjoy the good life.

Seriously, though, it’s never too late for HSUS to do the right thing and start spending its donors’ money where they think it’s going—to pet shelters, mostly. Pacelle can write pat-on-the-back blog articles all he wants (as he did yesterday), but sooner or later HSUS is going to have to put its money where his mouth is.

How ‘bout it, Wayne? Email us. Tweet us. Facebook us. (You can even “like” us on Facebook as a sign of good faith.) Skype us.

There’s good reason to get your spending in line with your image. We can wait another year if necessary, but the animals can’t.

Remember them? The animals?