Let’s delve into the enchanting story of Lek Lek‚ as narrated by Elephant News. In the verdant landscapes of Nuwara Eliya‚ Sri Lanka‚ often likened to “Little England” for its temperate weather and picturesque gardens‚ a team of researchers stumbled upon a heartwarming scene. There‚ amidst the market’s hustle and bustle‚ was a stray puppy‚... The post Stray puppy wags tail at every passerby hoping somebody will ‘save him’ appeared first on Animal Channel.

In a touching rescue story from the heart of St. Louis‚ the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Stream Team‚ while conducting a routine cleanup in North County‚ stumbled upon a startling discovery—a 12-week-old puppy abandoned in a trash heap. This narrative begins with the unexpected encounter of a white-coated survivor‚ endearingly named “Dude‚” who‚ despite his... The post Cleanup crew member finds abandoned puppy in garbage can and knows it’s his ‘destiny’ appeared first on Animal Channel.

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Have you ever desired to have both a penis and a vagina? An Ontario man referred to as K.S. is seeking to undergo a vaginoplasty while also keeping his penis intact at a gender-affirming hospital in Austin‚ Texas. Being that he’s “literally a mix” of genders‚ the man is in the middle of a court battle to force his Ontario insurance to pay for the procedure. According to the National Post‚ the case “reflects a small but growing demand for niche surgeries for people who identify as non-binary‚ meaning neither exclusively female nor exclusively male.” K.S. presents more as a female but says he doesn’t feel fully female‚ hence why he wants to keep his penis. In 2022‚ when K.S. initially requested the procedure‚ his Ontario’s Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) denied his request for a penis-sparing vaginoplasty that would be performed at the Crane Center for Transgender Surgery in Austin. He could get it done‚ but the insurance wouldn’t fund it. Related: Celebrating Sin: Drag Jesus‚ Transgender Bunnies &; LIES Obviously‚ this wasn’t the answer K.S. hoped for‚ so he complained to Ontario’s Health Services Appeal and Review Board which insisted that OHIP was wrong in its decision. The board ruled that “a vaginoplasty is among the 11 external genital surgeries listed for public coverage‚ and that it shouldn’t inherently include a penectomy‚” the National Post added. K.S.‚ who is now 33‚ has apparently struggled with his identity since he was a teen and “doesn’t completely align with either the male or female genders.” His doctor noted how important it was for K.S. to have both a penis and a vagina.  “It is very important for [K.S.] to have a vagina for her personal interpretation of her gender expression but she also wishes to maintain her penis‚” the doctor wrote in a letter to OHIP adding that K.S. "is transfeminine but not completely on the ‘feminine’ end of the spectrum [and] for this reason it’s important for her to have a vagina while maintaining a penis.” I don’t even know how that would work - but then again‚ I don’t want to have to visualize anything to try and find out.  “K.S. argued that forcing a non-binary person to undergo binary surgery — male to female‚ or female to male — would only exacerbate her gender dysphoria and would be akin to an act of conversion therapy‚” the National Post reported. Additionally‚ K.S. wants to keep his penis out of concern for the “urological rerouting.” Kinda funny that K.S. is worried about possible complications‚ given that walking into this sort of elective procedure is asking for complications. The case has now been moved up to Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice‚ but no official decision has been made about whether or not K.S.’s desires will be covered by insurance. I’m absolutely flabbergasted that this is even a story and dumbfounded at the fact that it isn’t made up‚ but instead that someone is so delusional and out of touch with reality that they think this is a normal desire. Follow us on Twitter/X: MRCTV's @tierin_rose joins OAN to talk The White House's transgender Easter celebration‚ grandpa's chestfeeding‚ and Lizzo's retirement. pic.twitter.com/ohZmKlr7jg — MRCTV (@mrctv) April 3‚ 2024

MSNBC’s Joy Reid closed out the Tuesday edition of The ReidOut by welcoming Damario Solomon-Simmons‚ an attorney representing survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre who are seeking reparations. During the interview‚ Reid claimed‚ without any evidence‚ that Oklahoma is seeking to ban teaching about the massacre. Reid claimed that “Oklahoma is a state that is not exactly in favor of telling all of the history‚ as that justice made it clear‚ they don't do that.” She then asked‚ “What do you make of the fact that even now you have some Oklahoma officials who are trying to ban history that would include the history of the Tulsa massacre‚ even as your case is going on?”     The Tulsa Race Massacre has been part of Oklahoma education standards since 2002. In 2019‚ the state made those requirements even more specific. What Reid is probably trying to say‚ in her usual dishonest way‚ is that anti-Critical Race Theory laws that ensure that today’s students are not made to feel responsible for yesterday’s crimes are somehow stifling teachers‚ which makes no sense given the standards explicit mention of the massacre. For his part‚ Solomon-Simmons tried to portray this fake controversy about history in schools to real struggles for civil rights in previous decades: You know‚ Joy‚ I remember 20‚ 25 years ago‚ when I was in college‚ a freshman‚ myself in college‚ I was thinking man‚ I wish I was born‚ you know‚ during the 60s and fight those fights. I never thought I'd be fighting the same type of things today and that’s what we are actually doing and it's sad and‚ you know‚ I speak to my 88-year-old father-in-law‚ who just turned 88 a couple of weeks ago‚ Aubrey Winston and I was saying ‘man‚ can you believe we are still dealing with the stuff you were dealing with growing up in the 40s and 50s’ and‚ you know‚ it’s‚ kind of‚ disheartening but‚ at the same time‚ I'm blessed to stand on the shoulders of the ancestors who have gone through so much more.  The comparison was crazy enough that Solomon-Simmons implied that he didn’t actually believe it‚ “I mean‚ your great new book Medgar Evers and the love with his beautiful wife‚ Mrs. Evers‚ I’ve reading that just thinking about this man with fighting in Mississippi in the 50s and the 60s when houses were being bombed‚ people were getting shot at‚ he was assassinated‚ so as hard as it is right now for us‚ it really pales in comparison of our ancestors.” The duo deciding to lament non-existent history bans suggests they missed the day when their teachers went over the importance of citing your sources. Here is a transcript for the April 2 show: MSNBC The ReidOut 4/2/2024 7:59 PM ET JOY REID: You obviously‚ Oklahoma is a state that is not exactly in favor of telling all of the history‚ as that justice made it clear‚ they don't do that. What do you make of the fact that even now you have some Oklahoma officials who are trying to ban history that would include the history of the Tulsa massacre‚ even as your case is going on? DAMARIO SOLOMON-SIMMONS: You know‚ Joy‚ I remember 20‚ 25 years ago‚ when I was in college‚ a freshman‚ myself in college‚ I was thinking man‚ I wish I was born‚ you know‚ during the 60s and fight those fights. I never thought I'd be fighting the same type of things today and that’s what we are actually doing and it's sad and‚ you know‚ I speak to my 88-year-old father-in-law‚ who just turned 88 a couple of weeks ago‚ Aubrey Winston and I was saying “man‚ can you believe we are still dealing with the stuff you were dealing with growing up in the 40s and 50s” and‚ you know‚ it’s‚ kind of‚ disheartening but‚ at the same time‚ I'm blessed to stand on the shoulders of the ancestors who have gone through so much more.  I mean‚ your great new book Medgar Evers and the love with his beautiful wife‚ Mrs. Evers‚ I’ve reading that just thinking about this man with fighting in Mississippi in the 50s and the 60s when houses were being bombed‚ people were getting shot at‚ he was assassinated‚ so as hard as it is right now for us‚ it really pales in comparison of our ancestors and I’m glad to stand on their shoulders to try to make life better for African-Americans and for this entire country.

Two men with decidedly different political outlooks have been my go-to sources on race in America. They are Dr. Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.‚ professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Dr. Gates has just published his latest book‚ “The Black Box.” The title is a reference to a box on hospital forms for newborns which one must check to confirm their race. Gates rightly calls this an “absurdity‚” largely because there are no racial “purebreds‚” and regardless of how we look on the outside‚ we are all equal on the inside. My first reaction upon reading his book was surprise that I didn’t learn much of what he writes about in high school or college. My second reaction was anger because I didn’t. One reason‚ I think‚ is that all of my teachers were white and textbooks sanitized the past in order to promote a “my country right or wrong” patriotic narrative. Dr. Gates uses the black box as a metaphor for how African Americans were once “locked in” when it came to expressing themselves in writings and‚ in some instances‚ locked themselves in by accepting this type of racial censorship as “the way it is.” As with his other books and PBS films‚ Dr. Gates exposes not only the thoughts and beliefs of some of the nation’s Founders‚ but of equal importance he uncovers the works of African American slaves and other Black people who were often censored by white society. It is hard to believe in today’s world that the writings of some Black authors had to be validated by committees made up of white people‚ the rationale being that many believed “Negroes” too dumb to be able to express themselves. The opposite‚ of course‚ is true as the author brilliantly shows us. Practically everyone knows about Thomas Jefferson’s flaming phrase in the Declaration of Independence: “… all men are created equal‚ that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” but how many know Jefferson’s beliefs about Black people? In his “Notes on the State of Virginia” (1785)‚ Jefferson claimed their racial features‚ intellect and morals were “fixed in human nature” and so must necessarily be ruled over “by the fine mixtures of red and white.” There’s more from that work and it’s even worse. “Consider this paradox‚” Dr. Gates writes: “Blackness was an arbitrary category invented by Europeans and Americans in the Enlightenment to justify the horror show of Black subjugation … the very concept of race is the child of racism.” Thanks to advances in DNA research‚ “what we popularly call ‘race’ is a social construct.” As has been said by others‚ the only true race is the human race. About “The Philosophy of History‚” published in 1837‚ Dr. Gates writes‚ “G.W.F. Hegel wrote that Africa ‘is no historical part of the World; it has no movement or development to exhibit.’” Hegel claimed – falsely – “that Africa lacked a tradition of writing‚ either in European languages or indigenous African languages … (like others) He ignored the Black written tradition in Arabic at the University of Timbuktu. It didn’t fit his thesis.” It didn’t fit his thesis could be said about supporters and practitioners of the slave trade and Jim Crow laws that kept Blacks from voting in the South. “The Black Box‚” along with the writings of Thomas Sowell‚ ought to be mandatory reading in every high school and American University‚ in large part to make up for the suppressed writings of talented and intelligent Black people of the past. They deserve the attention and praise most were denied in their time.

The Vermont Senate voted 21-5 on Friday to advance the Climate Superfund Act‚ which would force fossil fuel companies to pay into a fund covering weather event-related damages.If passed into law‚ Senate Bill 259 would create a "Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program" to finance "climate change adaptive or resilience infrastructure projects" in Vermont. "Under the Program‚ an entity or a successor in interest to an entity that was engaged in the trade or business of extracting fossil fuel or refining crude oil between January 1‚ 2000 and December 31‚ 2019 would be assessed a cost recovery demand for the entity's share of fossil fuel extraction or refinement contributing to greenhouse gas-related costs in Vermont. An entity would only be assessed a cost recovery demand if the Agency determined that the entity's products were responsible for more than one billion metric tons of covered greenhouse gas emissions‚" the bill read.The fund would be used to "avoid‚ moderate‚ repair‚ or adapt to negative impacts caused by climate change‚" such as "implementing nature-based solutions and flood protections; upgrading stormwater drainage systems; making defensive upgrades to roads‚ bridges‚ railroads‚ and transit systems; preparing for and recovering from extreme weather events; undertaking preventive health care programs and providing medical care to treat illness or injury caused by the effects of climate change."Additionally‚ the program would cover the costs of relocating sewage treatment plants‚ installing cooling systems in public and private buildings‚ upgrading that state's electrical grid‚ addressing toxic algae blooms‚ and managing the loss of topsoil.The legislation is sponsored by Sens. Anne Watson (D)‚ Dick Sears Jr. (D)‚ Christopher Bray (D)‚ and 17 other Democratic senators.According to Sears‚ the legislation is "built on the long-standing principle that the polluter pays‚" Mountain Times reported."The damage that fossil fuels are causing in our communities continues to grow‚ with flooding in the last year alone resulting in massive costs to our state‚" Sears claimed.Sen. Nader Hashim (D) told lawmakers on Friday‚ "In order to remedy the problems created by washed out roads‚ downed electrical wires‚ damaged crops and repeated flooding‚ the largest fossil fuel entities that have contributed to climate change should also contribute to fixing the problem that they caused.""We can place the burden on Vermont taxpayers or we can keep our fingers crossed that the federal government will help us or we can have fossil fuel companies pay their fair share‚" Hashim said.Under the legislation‚ the Vermont state treasurer would provide a report detailing the cost imposed on residents as a result of the "emission of greenhouse gases for the period that began on January 1‚ 2000 and ended on December 31‚ 2019." The report would assess the impact of fossil fuels on public health‚ natural resources‚ agriculture‚ economic development‚ and flood preparedness.The American Petroleum Institute stated that it opposes the bill and shared objections to the legislation in a letter to the state Senate last week‚ the Associated Press reported.The group is concerned that the bill "retroactively imposes costs and liability on prior activities that were legal‚ violates equal protection and due process rights by holding companies responsible for the actions of society at large; and is preempted by federal law.""Additionally‚ the bill does not provide potentially impacted parties with notice as to the magnitude of potential fees that can result from its passage‚" the API added.Similar bills have also been introduced in Maryland‚ Massachusetts‚ and New York.ExxonMobil did not respond to the AP's request for comment.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A former polling manager who was recently caught on camera hauling dozens of blank ballots into an Ohio bar and leaving them unattended is a Democrat former city official with a long history of DUIs and other alcohol-related convictions. On Tuesday‚ Blaze News reported that on March 18‚ the day before the Ohio 2024 primary election‚ Mark Provenza was caught bringing in at least 40 unmarked provisional ballots into the MAHD House Bar and Grille in Elyria‚ Ohio‚ about 30 miles from Cleveland. During his visit to the bar‚ Provenza walked away from his booth‚ leaving the ballots unattended‚ security video showed. When word of his actions spread‚ Provenza was fired from his voluntary position as the manager of the polling station at Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in Lorain‚ Ohio. It turns out‚ however‚ that Provenza was also once a Democrat public official with a powerful position in the City of Lorain. From 2000 until 2009‚ Provenza worked as the law director of the City of Lorain. According to the city's website‚ the Lorain law director: serves as legal counsel for all "for all elected officials‚ directors and council-persons" in Lorain; prepares "all contracts‚ bonds‚ ordinances and written instruments" in which Lorain is involved; prosecutes or defends the city in "all complaints‚ suits‚ and controversies" affiliated with it; reviews all ordinances under consideration by the city council; and serves as the prosecuting attorney for Lorain Municipal Court and likewise prosecutes cases for the City of Lorain and Sheffield Township. Though he was prosecuting cases on behalf of the city‚ Provenza had already found himself on the wrong side of the law by the time he entered office. Court records from nearby Lakewood‚ Ohio‚ indicate that in August 2000‚ Provenza was arrested for driving under the influence and driving on a suspended or restricted license. In August 2008‚ Provenza was arrested for driving under the influence once again after he smashed his vehicle into a Lakewood home‚ causing damage to property. Reports at the time indicated it was his fourth DUI arrest. For that incident‚ Provenza was sentenced to serve 12 months in jail but was given conditional release in March 2009 after serving 90 days. One of the conditions of his release was that he abstain from alcohol for five years while he remained on probation. However‚ he admitted that he had violated that condition almost immediately and was subsequently carted back to jail just one day after his release‚ prompting local leaders and outlets to begin calling for his resignation as city law director. In fact‚ then-Assistant Law Director R.J. Budway and then-Lorain Democratic Party Chairman Anthony Giardini drove to the jail with a resignation letter and pen practically in hand. They then met with Provenza‚ who signed the resignation letter from his jail cell‚ Cleveland.com reported at the time. Sadly‚ Provenza's troubles with alcohol did not end there. He has since been convicted of at least two other alcohol-related infractions. In August 2016‚ he was arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence and later pled guilty‚ and in September 2021‚ he was arrested for disorderly conduct related to intoxication and pled no contest. During his visit to the MAHD House bar last month‚ while he had dozens of ballots in tow‚ Provenza ordered and consumed at least one alcoholic beverage. He left the premises in a rideshare vehicle. Provenza did not respond to Blaze News' requests for comment‚ but Blaze News did speak with Lorain County Board of Elections Director Paul Adams‚ who called Provenza's actions with the ballots "a failure" that should not have happened. However‚ he wanted to reassure the public that the county has strict‚ bipartisan rules in place to keep elections honest. He noted that all ballots are affixed with "official seals with numbers that can be verified by teams of Democrats and Republicans." Any ballots and supplies with a doubtful seal or chain of custody are "not used‚" he said. He also claimed that each polling station has a Republican and Democrat manager. So whatever Provenza may or may not have been doing as poll manager‚ he would have had at least one Republican monitoring him and the station in general. Adams claimed he knew of no other accusations of election-related improprieties against Provenza. He also stated that‚ like all county election volunteers‚ Provenza would have had to undergo training and testing prior to the most recent election. When asked how Provenza came to be in charge of a county polling station despite his well-documented struggles with alcohol and his public fall from grace‚ Adams‚ a Democrat‚ claimed that he was unaware of Provenza's most recent arrests. Adams claimed he knew only about the 2008 incident and that Provenza had once worked as a city law director. He said he had not seen Provenza involved in any local "political" activities‚ Democrat or otherwise‚ since about the time of his resignation. Adams added that while felons are barred from becoming Ohio poll workers‚ few polling workers undergo extensive background checks because the system is in such desperate need of volunteers. "There's been a lot of individuals that have quite frankly been scared to step up and serve as poll workers‚ particularly right now in the environment that we're in‚" Adams explained to Blaze News. "This last election we had‚ I would say probably a good 15% of our poll workers called off and canceled within the last week before the election for one reason or another." Adams claimed that the emotionally charged "atmosphere" from both parties these days keeps people from getting involved. However‚ he wants to encourage people to overcome that initial hesitation and become a volunteer. "Because we need them‚" he said. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!