Getting Close Enough To Take An Eastern Coyote

By Joe KosackWildlife Conservation Education Specialist Pennsylvania Game Commission

Pennsylvania Game Commission
HARRISBURG, PA –-(AmmoLand.com)- Interested in finding something new and different to try this winter? Coyote hunting may be just what you’re looking for, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
“Calling a coyote into shotgun range is one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had in the outdoors,” said Perry County Wildlife Conservation Officer Steve Hower. “Catching one sneaking in the backdoor as you sit motionlessly waiting for it to come into range is right up there with calling in a trophy gobbler on a crisp spring morning.
“The action is often close. Your quarry is one of the most intelligent animals out there. And, if you do everything right and take a coyote, you’ll be hooked.”
The eastern coyote can be found in all of the state’s 67 counties. Next to the black bear, it is Pennsylvania’s largest wild predator weighing.........MORE

Photo of the Day

The idiots are winning!

You are NOT going to believe this nonsense - S.I. Boy Faced Suspension Over Tiny Toy

A fourth grade New Dorp boy faced the prospect of suspension after the principal at his South Beach school saw him playing with an action figure carrying a toy machine gun.Patrick Timoney, a 9-year-old student at PS 52, and friends were playing with LEGOs during their lunch period when the principal took him into her office over the two-inch toy gun carried by a standard policeman figure.Margie Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, told the Staten Island Advance that there is a no-tolerance policy for toy guns in schools.Therefore the principal, Evelyn Matroianni, deemed the pinky-sized toy gun suspension-worthy. Matroianni told Laura Timoney, the boy’s mother, that she would check with a DOE security administrator.But Ms. Timoney told the Advance that the DOE administrator said no other action was necessary after the toy gun is confiscated and returned to the parents at the end of the day.According to Ms. Timoney, while another child had an action figure holding an ax, her son was the only one to be approached by the principal."It's crazy," Ms. Timoney told the Advance, "He's missing class time, all for silly toys. The boys are just trying to relax. If there's a real threat, why not call the Police Department?"A conference about the matter was held among the principal, parents, and the child."The issue was resolved," Ms. Feinberg told the Advance. "The child will not be bringing the toy gun into school."The DOE states that all imitation weapons are prohibited because they are regarded as harmful to the school community. The principal can evaluate if the weapon looks realistic before considering suspension.

Earthquake Survivor Looks Forward To Helping Haitians

EMPORIUM, Pa. -- It's been nearly a month since a massive earthquake killed thousands of people in Haiti.
Cameron County native Lindsey Strauch, 27, was in Haiti when the earthquake happened.
She was able to get out of her apartment and wasn't hurt during the earthquake.
Strauch had lived in Haiti for most of the past six years.
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Mike Fapore took a long road to call Somerset home

Pharmacist Mike Fapore stands at the counter of the Medicine Shoppe in Somerset Borough. Fapore opened his branch of the franchise in 1996. (Staff photo by Bruce Siwy)


By BRUCE SIWYbruces@dailyamerican.comRating:
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Sunday, January 31, 2010 11:04 PM EST
Mike Fapore’s journey from a sports-oriented youth in Emporium to a business-owning pharmacist in Somerset Borough included plenty of detours.“In high school I didn’t have anything academically that I felt (was my future),” said the 51-year-old owner of the Medicine Shoppe along South Pleasant Avenue. “I just knew I wanted to work around people.”
It was athletics that dominated much of Fapore’s focus during his years at Cameron County High School.
“I was interested in sports growing up and played football, basketball and golf,” he said. “I hunted a little bit, but sort of lost that interest as I got older.”When Fapore graduated in 1976, it was a friend of a friend who got him interested in the medical profession.
He began his time at the University of Pittsburgh attending the Bradford campus. A year later, he was accepted into Pitt’s pharmacy school.Fapore earned his degree in 1982 and accepted a job at Dubois Hospital.“The job was more technical than clinical in nature,” Fapore said.So he moved on after about three years at the hospital, working various retail jobs before ending up near Clarion. His new job was at a pharmacy called McCabe Drug. It was here - in a small town called Brookville - that he met his wife.“Janice was a 4th grade elementary teacher at Brookville,” Fapore said. He added that the two were introduced through one of his patients, who was his future wife’s co-worker.They married in 1989. Three years later Fapore accepted another pharmacy job, this time in his home town of Emporium. And shortly after the 1993 birth of his first child, Pat, he began planning a venture into enterprise.“I just decided - in talking with Janice - that we wanted to do something on our own,” Fapore said.“I don’t and didn’t have a business background. But the Medicine Shoppe is a franchise and they help with that side of it.”He and his wife were determined to open shop in western Pennsylvania. Somerset was among their top choices.Corporate told them that Hollidaysburg - another town that piqued their interest - was too close to another Medicine Shoppe location in Altoona.So Fapore and his growing family relocated to Somerset Borough in the winter 1996 to open their franchise. His second child, Michaela, was born within weeks of the move.“We took a big risk in coming here,” Fapore said. “For the first three years we lived off of savings alone.”Fortunately it didn’t take long for his new town to feel like home.“Emporium is rural, too: People are down to earth, friendly,” he said. “Somerset is the same kind of way.”And his business has expanded considerably over the past 10-plus years. According to Fapore, the Medicine Shoppe now offers diabetes classes, adult immunizations and compounding, a service that involves preparing medicines into child-friendly forms such as lollipops.Fapore said he has no regrets: “My thought has always been if you do the right things and treat people right, everything will take care of itself.”While a member of St. Pete’s Catholic Church, Somerset Rotary and a variety of professional organizations, Fapore said family is his primary focus.He said that they are season ticket holders for Pitt basketball and football games and that they do practically everything together.There is, however, at least one exception.“I’m the only golfer in the family. I just can’t get anyone else interested in it.”

Pennsylvania state police back down on rifle registration scheme

In July of 2009, the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) mysteriously told federal gun dealers doing business in Pennsylvania that they were required to report to the PSP all purchasers' identity and item serial number information for transfers of certain long gun "frames" or "receivers" for guns such as the popular AR-15 rifle, just like Pennsylvania's Uniform Firearms Act (UFA) requires for handguns. Some gun dealers told the State Police "no way," noting that compliance with the State Police demarche constituted a criminal violation of the UFA.
For months gun owners and gun rights organizers protested that the State Police were trying to carry out "registration" of items that were essentially just the guts of long guns, not subject to transfer reporting like handguns under the UFA. As a legal matter in Pennsylvania, gun "registration" is unlawful, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Allegheny County Sportsmens' League v. Rendell ruled that the reports of transfer for handguns (mandated by the UFA) are not technically "registration" because.....READ MORE

Photo of the Day

I have been reading some books on deer management, and the relationship between deer numbers and forest regeneration. Here is a photo of an over browsed area of forest. It looks "normal" to most people, but there is no ground growth except ferns, and nothing between the ground up to about six feet, the upper limit for browsing deer