Idiot of the Week: Lied about Cancer, Military- and Bilked People of Thousands

Here's a serious idiot. This piece of human garbage lied about everything and made a lot of money. Now she's correctly in prison.

Photo: Sarah Jane Cavanaugh posed as a Marine combat veteran with a Purple Heart and Bronze star at a dedication ceremony for the Purple Heart Trail in Rhode Island. Credit; Boston.com 

Woman got more than $250K in charity because she said she was a Marine veteran with cancer. It was all a lie. 

Sarah Cavanaugh, 32, never served in Afghanistan or Iraq. On Tuesday, a judge ordered her to serve a nearly six-year-long prison sentence.

By Christopher Gavin, Boston.com March 15, 2023

A Rhode Island woman who falsely claimed to be a Marine Corps veteran suffering from cancer — and who used her fraud to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable donations and help — was sentenced to nearly six years in prison on Tuesday.

Sarah Cavanaugh, 32, pleaded guilty in August to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, forgery, and fraudulent use of medals.

In Providence, Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. sentenced Cavanaugh to five years and 10 months in prison — the sentence requested by federal prosecutors. McConnell also ordered she pay restitution totaling $284,796.82 to all of her victims.

Cavanaugh forged records she accessed through her job as a social worker at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center to build up the fabrications that she was a decorated veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, The Boston Globe reports.

Her lies propelled her into serving as the commander of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in North Kingstown and got her more than $250,000 in charity support, from yoga classes and retreats to an in-home caretaker, according to the newspaper.

She also took in over $5,000 from an actual military veteran with cancer.

“She preyed on people’s compassion, their sympathy, and their goodheartedness,” federal prosecutor Ronald Gendron said.

Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha called Cavanaugh’s conduct “nothing short of appalling.”

How the fraud unfolded

According to the Globe, the lies began soon after Cavanaugh began working at the VA in 2015.

She claimed she was a veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, complete with a V device, which denotes heroism. Cavanaugh also said she had a traumatic brain injury due to an attack from an improvised explosive device and said she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

She told those around her that exposure to burn pits while serving overseas and the particles from the IED had given her cancer, the Globe reports.

She used her VA email to obtain medals: She requested a shipment of a Purple Heart and Bronze Star from a company in San Diego. To back up her claims with records, she gained access to a VA patient’s own DD 214 form — paperwork veterans receive upon leaving the military — and swapped out the name.

Cavanaugh also befriended a military veteran, Justin Hsu, at the VFW Post 152 in North Kingstown.

Hsu has stage 4 lung cancer — and Cavanaugh told him she did, too, according to the Globe. Cavanaugh eventually was able to access Hsu’s VA medical records and altered them to help carry out her fraud.

Then, Cavanaugh told Hsu she needed help with her medical bills. In turn, Hsu gave her more than $5,000 for the treatment she allegedly needed. “I don’t know what kind of person can do that to someone with a terminal illness,” Hsu said in court Tuesday.

Cavanaugh benefitted from the generosity of nine veterans’ charities — money that funded “travel to retreats, in-home care, gym memberships, physical therapy, paying electric bills, and provided donated gift cards for use in obtaining groceries and other essentials,” prosecutors said in a statement.

“Cavanaugh also used false documentation to fraudulently obtain months of paid leave from two federal employee benefit programs based on her cancer claims,” officials said.

Cavanaugh spent the cash on gifts for her girlfriend, trips, and expensive clothes, the Globe reports.

Additionally, Cavanaugh gave public speeches while donning a full Marine uniform and landed a spot in an arts program at the University of Southern California, “a program she described to a U.S. Army veteran she met through the Wounded Warrior Program who was later accepted into the program,” prosecutors said.

“In a letter to the court, the Army veteran faulted Cavanaugh for taking ‘a spot [in the program] from another veteran who could have participated in the program and, ultimately, may not have committed suicide,'” officials said.

According to the Globe, the five-year scheme came to light when Cavanaugh tried to receive funding through the nonprofit HunterSeven Foundation.

The organization looked into Cavanaugh’s background and reached out to the VA, who, in turn, called VA police when the agency couldn’t find proof of Cavanaugh’s claims, the newspaper reports.

What Cavanaugh said in court Through her attorney, Cavanaugh had sought a prison sentence of two years and a day.

She told the judge on Tuesday she was sorry.

“All I ask is that you allow me a chance to rebuild my life in a way that is healthy and helpful,” Cavanaugh said, according to the Globe.

Her attorney, Kensley Barrett, a veteran, acknowledged Cavanaugh’s actions were unacceptable, but made the argument they were tied to trauma she suffered in her childhood.

However, McConnell, the judge, said the sexual abuse Cavanaugh allegedly suffered in her past did not provide a complete explanation as to why she made the claims she did.

“Sarah Cavanaugh feigned having cancer, and falsely claimed valor where there was none, to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits and charitable donations,” Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, said in a statement. “Her actions are an insult to every veteran who has served our country, and today she learned her fate for her criminal conduct.”

Heroes of the week: TN state Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, Gloria Johnson

 This week's heroes are the 3 lawmakers in Tennessee who stood up against the conservatives that rule the Tennessee legislature over gun control: TN state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black millennial freshmen, and Gloria Johnson. Jones and Pearson were kicked out, while Johnson remained. After the school mass shooting in Nashville, these 3 lawmakers called for gun control and had to use bullhorns because the Republican Speaker of the house turned off their microphones. The Republican majority do not want any gun control or gun safety. Here's the update from April 12, 2023: 

(Photo: TN state Reps. Justin Pearson,  Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson. Cr; EastTennessean.com) 

Tennessee Republicans may have just handed a lifeline to Democrats

Outrage over the ouster of two Democratic lawmakers has supercharged party organizing in a Republican stronghold.

By LIZ CRAMPTON , 04/12/2023 12:09 PM EDT, Politico

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Democrats can’t believe the moment they’re in.

On the day that state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black millennial freshmen, were kicked out of the Legislature, 33,000 people called into the state party office looking to get involved, Democratic Party Chair Hendrell Remus said. 

So far, nearly 10,000 have signed up to volunteer, he said in an interview, and hundreds of people have expressed interest in running for office — many in districts where Republican lawmakers ran unopposed in the midterms. More than half of Republican lawmakers serving in the statehouse today were uncontested in November.

An emotional, weeks-long confrontation in the state Legislature has thrust Nashville onto the national political scene and put the southern city at the center of a debate about race, activism and gun violence.

While Republicans intended their ouster of two progressive lawmakers last week to be a punishment, the move has turned into one of the Democratic Party’s best chances in years to boost their organization in the South. Democrats are dreaming up ways to claw back some power from the GOP, fueled by an influx of out-of-state dollars and new commitments from Tennesseans to get involved with politics.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we have to take advantage of,” state Sen. London Lamar, a Democrat who represents parts of Memphis, said in an interview.

A blue turnaround in Tennessee seemed like a pipe dream just a few weeks ago — and maybe still does. Democrats are outnumbered, out-resourced and hamstrung by a legislative map drawn to favor Republicans. It’s also a state that suffers from one of the lowest voter turnouts in the country.

Party insiders and organizers are the first to concede just how bad they have it.

“Nothing changes the fact that these districts are highly gerrymandered,” said Lisa Quigley, a former chief of staff to Rep. Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat who didn’t seek reelection after his district was effectively eliminated in redistricting last year. “It’s going to take some really smart organizing all over the state, because none of us vote very well.”

But if there was ever a moment when the party stood a chance, it’s now. The state Democratic Party has been flooded with donations and interest since the GOP started moving against three Democrats for participating in a gun safety protest on the state House floor, and ultimately expelling two of them last week for violating decorum rules. Their stunt angered Republicans who wanted to see them promptly punished, invoking a rare removal process marked by its partisanship and accusations of racism.

Most Republicans have avoided commenting on the spectacle outside of last week’s removal proceedings, where they admonished the Democrats for disrupting the process. FULL STORY:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/12/tennessee-democrats-justin-jones-pearson-00091631?utm_source=cordial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hp-us-reg-morning-email_2023-04-13&utm_term=us-morning-email

Discovery: 95 million-year-old land bridge across Antarctica carried dinosaurs between continents

 Paleontologists have been studying how dinosaurs migrate and wound up in different continents. At one time all of the continents were together, and the land mass was known as Pangea.  In today's blog you'll learn about that, but also how Dinosaurs roamed in what is now Ice-covered Antarctica!

Photo: Ann's skull is only the second sauropod skull found to date in Australia and is exceptionally well-preserved. (Image credit: Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum)

WHAT IS PANGEA? From about 300-200 million years ago (late Paleozoic Era until the very late Triassic), the continent we now know as North America was contiguous with Africa, South America, and Europe. They all existed as a single continent called Pangea 

95 million-year-old land bridge across Antarctica carried dinosaurs between continents

STORY FROM LIVE SCIENCE: By Sascha Pare April 17, 2023

The first-ever near-complete sauropod skull found in Australia is remarkably similar to fossils from South America, which suggests that dinosaurs roamed across ice-free Antarctica.

A nearly 100 million-year-old, exceptionally well-preserved sauropod skull discovered in Australia may show that dinosaurs trudged across Antarctica from South America to Australia, researchers have revealed.

The near-complete sauropod skull belongs to a species called Diamantinasaurus matildae. Sauropods are known for their extremely long necks, with one dinosaur's neck stretching farther than a school bus. D. matildae was also a titanosaur, the only group of sauropod dinosaurs to live right until the end of the Cretaceous (145 million to 66 million years ago) before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.

Paleontologists excavated the specimen in 2018 from a sheep ranch northwest of Winton, in Queensland, Australia, and nicknamed it "Ann." D. matildae was as long as a tennis court (78 feet or 23.77 meters) and weighed around 27.5 tons (25 metric tons), three times more than Tyrannosaurus rex. The fossils look strikingly similar to bones unearthed in Argentina, which prompted researchers to think that sauropods journeyed between South America and Australia, via Antarctica.

(Image: Pangea- all continents together as one land mass)

"In analyzing the remains, we found similarities between the Ann skull and the skull of a titanosaur called Sarmientosaurus musacchioi, which lived in South America at about the same time as Diamantinasaurus lived in Queensland," Stephen Poropat, a paleontologist at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and lead author of a new study into the fossils, said in a statement(opens in new tab). "We suggest that sauropods were traveling between Australia and South America, via Antarctica, during the mid Cretaceous."

In the hothouse world of the Cretaceous, Antarctica was blanketed with lush forests and vegetation. Scientists already knew that sauropods roamed the now-frigid landmass, after the first long-necked-dinosaur fossil in Antarctica was discovered in 2011. Some scientists had already theorized that these behemoths used Antarctica to bridge continents. At the time, Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and South America were joined and formed the last remnant of the supercontinent Gondwana, according to the Australian Museum.

Now, in a study published Wednesday (April 12) in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers compared the best-preserved sauropod skull found to date in Australia with others from across the world.

SCIENCE: El Nino watch issued: Here’s how it could affect weather in the U.S.

Now that La Nina has faded and the conditions in the Eastern Pacific are "neutral," climatologists are predicting a good chance that an El Nino will develop. That's a huge pool of warmer than normal waters off the U.S. Pacific Coast, that disrupts the Jet Stream in the upper atmosphere.  Here's a well-written blog post about how El Nino can affect the U.S. 

Sea surface temperature anomalies for April 12, 2023. Yellow, orange and red indicate where water is warmer than historical averages, and green, blue and purple show where water is cooler than historical averages. (NASA Worldview)

El Nino watch issued: Here’s how it could affect weather in the US

Big changes are unfolding in the Pacific Ocean, and the result could have significant implications for the Atlantic hurricane season and the upcoming winter in North America.

By John Murphy, AccuWeather staff writer

Published Apr 14, 2023 3:02 PM EDT | Updated Apr 14, 2023 3:02 PM EDT

The Pacific Ocean is getting warmer, and the rising water temperatures have spurred forecasters to issue the first El Niño watch in years. AccuWeather meteorologists say that the emerging phenomenon will play a pivotal role in dictating the weather patterns for North America and beyond through the upcoming winter.

El Niño is part of a regular climate cycle known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). It occurs when sea surface temperatures in the equatorial eastern Pacific rise to above-average levels for an extended period of time. Its cooler counterpart, La Niña, is declared when water temperatures in this zone of the Pacific Ocean are below historical averages for months at a time. When the water temperatures are right around the long-term averages, forecasters say the ENSO is neutral.

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) issued a report on Thursday stating there is a 62% chance of El Niño developing between May and July 2023.

The last time an El Niño occurred was during the winter of 2018-2019.

AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said that El Niño will likely develop by late June, but it is still uncertain how strong it will become this year due to the influence of other climate phenomena.

The water temperatures near the equator in the Pacific Ocean can alter the jet stream on a global scale. The more the water in this zone warms up, the stronger El Niño becomes, resulting in a bigger influence on the jet stream.

The anticipated arrival of El Niño will align with the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins in June and ramps up in August and September. Although El Niño occurs in the Pacific Ocean, it can have a significant impact on tropical systems over the Atlantic hurricane basin.

During the Atlantic hurricane season, El Niño “creates stronger vertical wind shear across the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and the tropical Atlantic,” AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said. Wind shear is defined as changing wind speed and direction with altitude and can inhibit tropical development.

Wind shear makes it difficult for tropical cyclones to have a vertically aligned center, which prevents them from strengthening. Kottlowski explained that this is similar to a spinning top. When completely upright, a top can spin continuously without issue. However, if it is angled or tilted — such as when wind shear is present — it can unravel and come to a halt.

Outside of tropical cyclones, an El Niño can also lead to wetter conditions than usual across the southern U.S. and warmer, drier conditions in the northern U.S. Stronger El Niños can amplify those effects, leading to destructive flooding in some areas and severe drought in others.

Even though the ENSO is trending towards El Niño conditions, the exact impacts remain to be seen. Strong El Niños have recently been observed from 1997 into 1998 and from 2015 into 2016.

The increased chance for El Niño comes after La Niña conditions were present for nearly three straight years. The unusually long-lasting nature of the phenomenon led to the unofficial nickname of a “triple-dip La Niña.” It was only the third time since the 1950s that La Niña persisted for three winters in a row.

La Niña conditions were first observed in the central Pacific in the three-month stretch from July through September 2020. The triple-dip La Niña was officially declared over in March 2023.

Newfound bat skeletons are the oldest on record!

Discoveries of ancient animals always fascinate me - and this recent discovery has shown that bats haven't really changed much in over 52 Million Years!!  Here's the story.

(Photo: Two complete fossils of the newfound bat species Icaronycteris gunnelli (one shown) are the oldest known bat skeletons, researchers say.RIETBERGEN ET AL/PLOS ONE 2023)

Newfound bat skeletons are the oldest on record 

The 52.5-million-year-old fossils show the ancient fliers were surprisingly modern

By Sid Perkins, April 12, 2023, Science News

Two fossilized bat skeletons unearthed in western Wyoming represent a new species and are the oldest set of bat bones yet discovered, researchers say.

The incredibly complete fossils of Icaronycteris gunnelli, which show all the animals’ bones in lifelike positions, are from limestone rocks that accumulated as lake sediments about 52.5 million years ago, vertebrate paleontologist Tim Rietbergen and colleagues report April 12 in PLOS ONE. Skeletons of the few other bat species, including another one from the Icaronycteris genus, found in the same limestones, called the Green River Formation, were preserved at least 40 centimeters above the new fossils — and are thus younger.

But it’s difficult to estimate just how much younger those fossils are because researchers don’t know how rapidly sediments accumulated over time, says Rietbergen, of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, Netherlands.

An analysis of the newfound skeletons indicates I. gunnelli is the runt of its genus. The species has a wingspan, typically estimated from the length of forearm bones, that is almost 7 percent smaller than that of the bat’s closest known cousin, Rietbergen and colleagues say. During its lifetime, I. gunnelli weighed somewhere between 22.5 and 28.9 grams — roughly half as heavy as a tennis ball, the team calculates.

These skeletons “are a great discovery,” says Zhe-Xi Luo, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in the study. The arrangement of bones in I. gunnelli’s feet suggest that it, like many modern bats, hung upside down when roosting, he says.

Because the skeletons are so much like those of some modern bats, “we’re not any closer to knowing what type of creatures bats evolved from,” says Brock Fenton, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, who also was not involved with the work. The world’s oldest known bats lived about 56 million years ago, but the fossils of those species are mostly isolated teeth, not entire skeletons.

Satellite imagery reveals ‘hidden’ tornado tracks

A tornado track is a path of devastation on the ground as seen from space, and scientists are using satellite images to determine tornado tracks that were not visible to the human eye. 

( Image:  A tornado left this track when it ripped through Tuscaloosa, Ala., on April 27, 2011. But not all twisters leave such unambiguous scars. GOOGLE EARTH, GEOEYE)  

Satellite imagery reveals ‘hidden’ tornado tracks

The analysis could help researchers study storms that strike in the winter

By Katherine Kornei, Science News , APRIL 9, 2023 AT 7:00 AM

When a strong tornado roars through a city, it often leaves behind demolished buildings, broken tree limbs and trails of debris. But a similarly powerful storm touching down over barren, unvegetated land is much harder to spot in the rearview mirror.

Now, satellite imagery has revealed a 60-kilometer-long track of moist earth in Arkansas that was invisible to human eyes. The feature was presumably excavated by a tornado when it stripped away the uppermost layer of the soil, researchers report in the March 28 Geophysical Research Letters. This method of looking for “hidden” tornado tracks is particularly valuable for better understanding storms that strike in the winter, when there’s less vegetation, the researchers suggest. And recent research has shown that wintertime storms are likely to increase in intensity as the climate warms (SN: 12/16/21).

Jingyu Wang, a physical geographer at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and his colleagues set out to detect the signatures of those deadly storms in unpopulated, barren landscapes.

Swirling winds, even relatively weak ones, can suction up several centimeters of soil. And since deeper layers of the ground tend to be wetter, a tornado ought to leave behind a telltale signature: a long swath of moister-than-usual soil. Two properties linked with soil moisture level — its texture and temperature — in turn impact how much near-infrared light the soil reflects.

Wang and his collaborators analyzed near-infrared data collected by NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites and looked for changes in soil moisture consistent with a passing tornado.

When the team looked at data obtained shortly after the 2021 storm outbreak, they noticed a signal in northeastern Arkansas. The feature was consistent with a roughly 60-kilometer-long track of wet soil. Tornadoes had been previously reported in that area — outside the city of Osceola — so it’s likely that this feature was created by a powerful storm, the team concluded.

Recommendation: Lil Back Bracer for Dogs

Our 12 year old Dachshund Tyler sprained his back while running after squirrels to chase them out of our backyard. When he stopped and yelped, and his back leg muscles and stomach tightened, I knew he had sprained his back. 

It was confirmed by 2 visits to a neurologist and X-rays to ensure it wasn't a slipped disc.  The doctor recommended "Lil' Back Bracer" to help keep Tyler's back in line, and it seems to be helping. 

Excellent at keeping back aligned

Tyler  has been wearing Lil Back Bracer for the 2 weeks and it has helped keep his spine aligned and effectively reduced muscle pain from a strain. It  has been helpful in keeping an energetic Dachshund in a healing mode. It works on the same principle as a human back brace wrap. Material with a velcro wrap. It fits snugly and provides great support.

I do take it off at night so he can sleep comfortably. It's over $100, but surgery is a lot more expensive, so keep that in mind. It will also prevent your dog from experiencing more painful back conditions. Well worth it! 

 This is the reply by Lil Back Bracer:

Hi Rob, So wonderful to read this update of your dog! We are so glad the brace is helping your dog in several ways and helping him move more freely and with less pain. We hope for continued mobility and reduced pain for your sweet dog. Please let us know if you have any questions along the way, always happy to help! Best, L'il Back Bracer

Idiot of the Week: Tenn. State Rep Asks Protesters What Gun They'd Prefer To Be Shot With

Tennessee has been in the news a lot lately for the wrong reasons. Although I prefer to focus on the GOOD stuff in Tennessee, like the Grand Ole Opry, Dolly Parton, Dollywood and the Smoky Mountains, Unfortunately, there are a LOT of idiots to counter the good stuff. Like this moron: Tennessee State Rep. William Lamberth (R). This gun-happy idiot also voted down Red Flag Laws which would have helped keep guns out of some of the hands of people who would be a threat to others. Another idiot who doesn't mind if children or parents are murdered, just as long as no one touches his guns. Sigh,

Tenn. State Rep Asks Protesters What Gun They'd Prefer To Be Shot With

David Moye, Yahoo News, Mon, April 3, 2023

A Tennessee politician attempted to school some students protesting gun violence at the Tennessee Capitol on Monday, but he missed the mark by a long shot.

The students were reacting to a recent shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville that led to the deaths of three children and three adults.

State Rep. William Lamberth (R) agreed to talk with the protesters, but had a weird way to trying to win a debate with students worried about getting shot in class.

Lamberth’s approach was to ask the students which firearm they’d prefer to be shot with.

“If there is a firearm out there that you’re comfortable being shot with, please show me which one it is,” he asked rhetorically.

Lamberth probably thought the question he asked the protesters was deep and Socratic, but it came across as heartless ― especially when accompanied by a shrug.

“So you’re not going to like my answer, and, look, I’m going to say that straight up,” Lamberth warned. “It’s not about this one gun.”

He then claimed that it would be impossible to stop every single gun from getting into “the hands of a crazy person, a deranged person, [or] a convicted felon,” and even if it was done, it “would do nothing to prevent y’all’s safety.” 

Lamberth has previously protested red flag laws, saying that, “We don’t take people’s Fourth Amendment Rights or First Amendment Rights, or Second Amendment Rights or Fifth Amendment Rights without proper due process, without making sure that everyone knows what the rules are ahead of time.”

Naturally, his comments suggesting one gun will kill you the same as another were mocked by Twitter users.

From Rob's Book blog; Spirit Dog Can See Clearly Now

Since I couldn't find a "good news story" this week, I thought I'd share the post from my book blog about my communications with pets in the afterlife. Here it is:

 Spirit Dog Can See Clearly Now

I recently did a reading with a dog who provided many messages, and this was one of many his mom confirmed:

I conveyed: “He wants you to know is that he can see more clearly now, I assume that his eyesight was either becoming nearsighted, or hazy. That's all gone now!”

His mom wrote: “In the last year of his life, Louie was also diagnosed with glaucoma in his right eye and cataract in his left eye. I had to give him eye drops daily to control the inflammation.”

Read Rob Gutro's "Pets and the Afterlife" Series of books to learn how to recognize signs from your pets in spirit. Available on Amazon

Did you Know? there a U.S. National Historic Landmark in Morocco

 Here's an interesting fact about U.S. National Historic Landmarks that I didn't know until my friend Chris L. sent it to me. One of them is located in Morocco! Here's the story.

One of the only National Historic Landmarks outside the U.S. is in Morocco.

Interesting Facts.com  

Since 1960, the National Historic Landmark program has marked around 2,600 locations of special significance to the foundation and development of the United States. The sites range from Independence Hall in Philadelphia to the Fresno Municipal Sanitary Landfill in California, and almost all locations are found within the U.S., its territories, or areas the U.S. used to control, such as the Federated States of Micronesia.

 Only one site lies in a completely sovereign nation that has never experienced any sort of U.S. administration — the north African country of Morocco.

Morocco was one of the first countries to recognize the U.S. as a sovereign nation, by order of Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah on December 20, 1777. Due in part to the treaty of peace and friendship the two nations signed in 1786 (which created the longest unbroken diplomatic relationship in U.S. history), Morocco bestowed a sprawling mansion (now called the Tangier American Legation) upon the young nation in 1821. The mansion is situated in the medina, or walled city, in Tangier, which was once Morocco’s diplomatic capital. 

The building has served many purposes throughout the years, including acting as a consulate, espionage headquarters, and Peace Corps training facility. 

It became a historic landmark in 1982, and is still officially owned by the U.S., but is leased to the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies — which continues the nearly 250-year friendship between the two countries.

Just 1 Day in Florida Politics: Burning the State's Rights Down

 Florida used to be a purple state in terms of politics- A 50/50 balance of intelligent progressive people in favor of equality vs. conservative, backward, bible-thumping, bigots. Now, the balance has tipped to the conservatives, and they are burning the state's rights to hell. In just ONE DAY on April 4th, here's the news from the Miami Herald. Just look at all the stupid happening:

NEWS FROM The 5-Minute Herald: April 4, 2023 miamiherald.com

☀️ Good morning, Miami. Today will be partly cloudy. The high will be near 85 degrees with a good dose of stupidity.

PERFORMING ARTS: ANTI-DRAG SHOW WAR

Can kids see ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’? How DeSantis’ anti-drag war is affecting the performing arts. Is DeSantis’ attack on drag affecting the performing arts? Beached sargassum surrounds a pair of sunbathers in Boca Raton on March 31, 2023.

FLORIDA POLITICS: FL SENATE PASSES 6-WEEK ABORTION LIMIT

Florida Senate passes 6-week abortion limit.  House vote comes next. Senate President Kathleen Passidomo ordered the clearing of the Senate gallery because of repeated outbursts from audience members opposed to the bill.

ABORTION DRUG RESTRICTIONS

In addition to the six-week limit for abortions passed Monday by the Florida Senate, the bill includes other changes, such as requiring abortion-inducing medication be provided in person by doctors.

FLORIDA POLITICS: PERMITLESS GUN CARRY LAW SIGNED 

DeSantis signs permitless carry into law despite criticism from both sides of gun debate “Permitless concealed carry is a good thing. But it’s not the constitutional carry that we were promised.” — Luis Valdes, Florida director of Gun Owners of America

Our Treatment of Dachshund Back Strain

 If you have a dachshund or a dog that has a long back and has chased squirrels and sprained their backs, I recommend a couple of things.

(Photo: Tyler posing in his back bracer) 

FOR PAIN AND SWELLING: Have your vet X-ray your dog to ensure that there is no disc slippage. If there is, that requires IVDD surgery. If now, check with your vet for 1) gabapentin for pain, 2) prednisone for swelling, and 3) muscle relaxers if your dog is cramping up from back pain.  

BACK SUPPORT: Our neurologist recommended buying a "Lil' Back Bracer" and it's a cloth fitting, that fits like a sweater, but has a rigid back, and velcro straps. It keeps the dog's back in line.  What it is: The L'il Back Bracer is the only patented orthopedic support brace for dogs. The patented design helps keep your dog’s back supported when dealing with Intervertebral Disc Disease (IVDD) and other causes of dog back pain.

OUR SITUATION: Tyler the (12 year old) Dachshund sprained his back chasing a squirrel in the back yard. Now he's on leash walks for a month, only to go OUT and Back IN relatively quickly. He's on BED REST for a month. After 5 days of prednisone and muscle relaxers, he was doing better. He's on a maintenance dose of gabapentin. Fortunately, Tyler is pretty patient. No walks around the block for a month and he has to wear the brace for a month. TIP: If your dog is uncomfortable with the straps near the legs, just attached ONE of the Two straps.

It seems to be working, thankfully! 

BY WEEK 4, Tyler was again going on short walks in the neighborhood and  has his energy back!

 Hope someone "has your back" today.

KARMA!!! Right-Wing Twitter Influencer Convicted Of Voter Deception

Karma will catch up with everyone. and this FLORIDA MAN, who tried to convince voters to "vote by text" for Hillary Clinton and not vote at the polls, was finally found guilty of defrauding people of their votes.  He was charged with conspiracy against rights in January 2021, accused of scheming to trick people out of their voting rights. 

(Photo:   Douglass Mackey, who the feds say went by the Twitter name Ricky Vaughan, was allegedly a prominent anonymous anti-Semite, racist and Trump-booster online before the 2016 election. Credit: NY Daily News) 

BREAKING: Right-Wing Twitter Influencer Convicted Of Voter Deception

U.S.  Dept of Justice, March 31, 2023

    NEW YORK — A self-styled far-right propagandist from Florida was convicted Friday of charges alleging that he conspired to deprive individuals of their right to vote in the 2016 presidential election. A New York federal jury on Friday convicted a right-wing Twitter influencer of scheming to interfere in the 2016 election by circulating memes targeting Hillary Clinton supporters representing that they could vote via text.

    Douglass Mackey, 33, of West Palm Beach, Florida, was convicted in Brooklyn federal court before Judge Ann M. Donnelly after a one-week trial. On the internet, he was known as “Ricky Vaughn.”  

  In 2016, Mackey had about 58,000 Twitter followers and was ranked by the MIT Media Lab as the 107th-most important influencer of the then-upcoming presidential election, prosecutors said. The government alleged that from September 2016 to November 2016, Mackey conspired with several other internet influencers to spread fraudulent messages to Clinton supporters.  https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/social-media-influencer-douglass-mackey-convicted-election-interference-2016

Father-son duo go viral over 9-year-old’s custom-sewn shirt

 Here's a really cool story about a 9 year old with an amazing talent for sewing. The kid is a boy, which is awesome, because he breaks the gender stereotype that only girls develop this skill (which is ridiculous when you think of it, since men have been known as tailors since the middle ages). Here's the cool story from Boston Com:

Photo: Aaron and Sam Gouveia MJ Gouveia. credit: Boston.com

Franklin (Mass.) father-son duo go viral over 9-year-old’s custom-sewn shirt

"The kindness out there from total strangers around the world is staggering, and it's really fantastic."

By Melissa Ellin, Boston.com, March 28, 2023

Sam Gouveia, a fourth-grader from Franklin, is no stranger to the limelight.

When he was 5 years old, he was bullied for wearing nail polish at school. A Twitter thread sparked a media frenzy that eventually brought Sam to the “Today” show.

For his ninth birthday, Sam was recorded as he was gifted a sewing machine. That, too, blew up on social media and resulted in an appearance on “The Rachel Ray Show.”

“Sam has a downright weird history of going viral even though he’s only nine,” his father, Aaron Gouveia, told Boston.com.

Now, Sam is once again going viral, after Aaron Gouveia posted a TikTok of his son gifting him a shirt he made in classes at the Franklin Mill Store. As of Tuesday afternoon, the video – which was posted under Aaron Gouveia’s TikTok, @daddyfiles – had more than 91,000 views.

In the video, Sam walks into the room holding a shirt, and his father asks about it. When Sam says he made it, Aaron Gouveia responds “holy crap.”

@daddyfiles Sam made me a shirt! Wow. #sewing #sewingtiktok #samsewgood #boyswhosew #parenting #raisingboys ♬ original sound - Aaron

He puts the shirt on and shows it off for viewers, asking his son questions about why he chose the pattern and why he made certain decisions.

“Well, I got some help, but I did most of it myself,” Sam says.

Sam told Boston.com he made the shirt because his dad is always wearing jeans.

“I thought that shirt, that material would go good with jeans,” he said, adding that he’s happy with the reception on social media.

Aaron Gouveia said they like to read the comments, which Sam said make him feel good about himself.

“A lot of people are motivating me and people are being nice, which I like,” Sam said.

He added that he likes sewing because it “calms [him] down.”

The 9-year-old estimated the shirt took him around three to four classes to make, but his dad said it was likely around five or six.

Now, he’s working on a shirt for his mother, because he said his dad can’t be the only one with a shirt.

: “I have to let them have shirts together… so they can just jam out,” Sam said.

The outpouring from fans prompted Aaron Gouveia to set up a post office box so his son can receive all of the sewing supplies people are now trying to send his way. He said people are sending sewing machines and textiles, and Joann Fabrics is even sending a care package.

“The kindness out there from total strangers around the world is staggering, and it’s really fantastic,” Aaron Gouveia said.

Idiot of the Week: Minn. Politician: "No School Lunches. I Never Met a Hungry Kid."

 You have to wonder why some people are elected to office. This Idiot of the week is Minnesota GOP State Sen. who voted against Free School Lunches. He said he's Never Met Hungry Kids. Here's the story. 

 MN Sen. Steve Drazkowski said  "hunger is a relative term."

 More than 8% of the children in the county he represents live in poverty. 

By Sebastian Murdock, Huff. Post Mar 15, 2023, 11:51 AM EDT

Minnesota kids will soon get free school lunches across the state, no thanks to a Republican state senator who voted against the bill because he said he’s never met a hungry kid in his state.

“I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that is hungry,” Republican state Sen. Steve Drazkowski said Tuesday on the Senate floor in St. Paul before voting against the legislation. “I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that says they don’t have access to enough food to eat.”

Approximately 1 in 6 children in Minnesota are food insecure, meaning they don’t know where or when their next meal will be available, according to a fact sheet from anti-hunger groups in support of the bill.

“Being hungry makes learning almost impossible,” state Sen. Heather Gustafson, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, said on the Senate floor. “Let’s feed the kids.”

During his arguments, Drazkowski called the proposed program “pure socialism.” “Now, I should say that hunger is a relative term,” Drazkowski added. “I had a cereal bar for breakfast. I guess I’m hungry now.”

If Drazkowski wanted to find one of those hungry children he claims to have “yet to meet,” he could check the very county he represents. In Wabasha County, more than 8% of kids lived in poverty in 2021, up from about 7% the previous year, according to the Federal Reserve of Economic Data.

Despite Drazkowski’s opposition, the measure passed by a vote of 38-26 and is expected to be signed into law by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. Once signed, Minnesota will join other states, including California and Colorado, in giving free meals to kids.