A conservative legal group warned Monday of a “loophole” that allows thousands of voters in Wisconsin to cast a ballot without showing identification.  The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) released a research report that said there are 144,347 people in the Badger State classified as “indefinitely confined,” meaning that they could cast an absentee ballot without showing ID. Indefinitely confined rates skyrocketed during the 2020 election and allowed tens of thousands to cast absentee ballots.  “Wisconsin has a strong voter ID requirement in place, but there is one loophole that is ripe for exploitation. In Wisconsin, voters can claim they are ‘Indefinitely Confined,’ a status that allows a voter to continually receive an absentee ballot without ever showing an ID,” the report from WILL researcher Will Flanders said.  Flanders said that while the number of voters classified as “indefinitely confined” had come down from 2020, it was still 116% higher than it was back in 2016 as of July 2024. He added that there were still thousands of voters who should be removed from the list under state law.  “Per state law, clerks are to remove voters if they vote in-person or do not vote in any election. Those voters must sign and return a form to retain that status,” the report noted.  According to Flanders, voters who should have received a notice of potential removal from the “indefinitely confined” list include 24,800 who didn’t vote in the April election, 2,788 who haven’t voted at all since 2020, and 2,595 who voted in person in April. The areas with the highest number of indefinitely confined voters are the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Madison followed by more divided areas like Green Bay and Kenosha.  Indefinitely confined voter status was designed to help voters who are elderly or disabled and unable to make it to the polls. Voters just have to select that they fit the requirements for being indefinitely confined. Credit: WILL. “Under this statute, voters decide for themselves whether they meet the requirements and can receive an absentee ballot in perpetuity if they continue to vote in every election,” the report said. “Most critically, voters can receive ballots in this way without providing a photo ID. In Wisconsin, you only need to show a photo ID when you vote—not when you register.” Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you. During the 2020 election, election officials in Madison and Milwaukee said that effectively all voters could claim indefinitely confined status because of COVID. The Wisconsin Supreme Court later ruled against this guidance, after the election.  WILL has argued that there should be tighter guidelines for receiving indefinitely confined status and sent out letters to 15 communities across the state to see if they were complying with state law about cleaning up their rolls.  “Confidence in our elections continues to be dangerously low in Wisconsin and across the country,” Flanders told The Daily Wire. “Voter ID is a popular and well-executed way to keep our elections secure and free of fraud. While the Governor refused to fix this loophole in the years since 2020, efforts must be made by local election clerks to resolve it as much as possible.” Wisconsin is expected to be one of the key battleground states that may determine the outcome of the 2024 election with polls showing a close race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Multiple other candidates suspended their campaigns before Harris did

'Way too close to call'

'What is the law in California and New York?'

A man from Germany stumbled upon what appears to be an ancient Christian relic in August while doing a home construction project. A 3-foot-long stone tablet from the 12th century, believed to depict a Christian bishop who visited the region some 800 years ago, was uncovered by a man in the Pomerania region of Germany, […]

NYT POLL: TRUMP LEADS KAMALA IN NATIONAL SURVEY... Trump Pulls Ahead Of Harris In Major National Poll A new New York Times/Siena College poll shows former President Donald Trump pulling ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris by a slim margin. Recent data now shows Trump polling at 48% with Harris behind by one point at 47% and 6% of voters still being undecided, according to the New York Times/Siena College.

In northern Maine, a company is planning the largest battery ever made by humans with 8,500 megawatt-hours of storage. The purpose is to store renewable energy like solar and wind, produced but not needed, for times when the Sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. The batteries store and discharge energy via a novel […] The post World’s Largest Battery to Revolutionize Renewable Energy Storage in Maine with ‘Reverse Rusting’ appeared first on Good News Network.

The post Are Cats Manipulative? Olga’s Manipulation Skills by Christopher Bays appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com. Hi, I’m Christopher! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my silly Russian Blue cat, Olga. Cats find creative ways to get our attention, but some of their techniques are more cunning than others. Although dogs are more famous for their begging skills than cats, Olga has developed a system that encourages me to feed her earlier than her usual dinnertime. It was unnecessary before I worked at home, and over the years, she’s modified her methods. Most pet cats, even the affectionate ones, are somewhat manipulative. Their instincts influence their behavior, but their intelligence helps them discover new ways to irritate their owners. In the wild, they don’t need to beg or depend on humans for food or entertainment. Please feed me. I’m famished. They may devise a plan to steal a rodent’s carcass from a littermate, but most felines, except those in feral colonies, are solitary hunters. Wild cats don’t need to be manipulative, but housecats have learned to prey on our emotions. They haven’t been domesticated for as long as dogs, but the recently discovered grave of an 8-month-old cat buried next to their owner in Cyprus suggests cats have been annoying humans for nearly 10,000 years. Like her ancestors, Olga knows how to influence people and makes Dale Carnegie proud. If she wants to sit on the windowsill, she starts by grinding her claws on the wood molding. Then, she stands on her hind legs and hits the blinds. If I don’t open the blinds and let her sit down, she escalates her attack by jamming a paw into the blind and slamming it back and forth into the wall. If I shout or tell her to stop, she backs off momentarily before resuming the mischief. I attacked the blinds; my work here is complete. She knows I have a breaking point, and even if I chase her away from the window, she won’t relent until I pull the blinds up. Her begging routine is subtle at first, but as her hunger grows, she becomes more impatient and bolder. Her normal dinnertime is around 5 PM, but the subtle begging begins around 2:30. She wakes up from her 10th nap of the day, sits near the entrance to my office, and stares at me. After an hour of ignoring her, she’ll move closer and sit on the windowsill since it’s to the left of my computer screen. I can see her glare in my peripheral vision when I’m typing, but I’ve learned to ignore her and avoid eye contact. She’ll grunt and stand up if I return her stare, and eventually, she’ll get tired of waiting and find other ways to grab my attention. She’ll run into the bathroom, jump in the bathtub, and howl. I didn’t think cats were intelligent enough to understand the principles of acoustics, but Olga knows that her voice is amplified when she screams in the tub. Next, she jumps on the sink and knocks my toothpaste or contact lens case on the floor. I respect her for trying the gentle approach before resorting to violence, and while I don’t like to be manipulated by humans, I don’t mind when Olga is devious. This article is a part of Christopher and Olga's series. Read his previous article: How Cats React When You’re on the Phone: Olga Is Patient The post Are Cats Manipulative? Olga’s Manipulation Skills by Christopher Bays appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

Column SFF Bestiary A Microgallery of Pull-Your-Leg Cryptids A quick look at some legendary creatures of folklore and tall tales… By Judith Tarr | Published on September 9, 2024 Photo by Sharon Waldron [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Sharon Waldron [via Unsplash] Cryptids are, by definition, creatures that dwell beyond the threshold of conventional science. People who hunt them and profess to study them live in hope that their chosen quarry will somehow, someday, produce incontrovertible evidence of its existence. Cryptozoology, by its nature, relies on the power of faith. Many cryptids seem to resolve into misidentifications of known species. Some appear to be memories of extinct animals. Others may turn out to be known animals living far outside of their usual range. Once in a great while, one may actually be found, with great and appropriate fanfare. And then there are the creatures of folklore. Tall tales. Whoppers and leg-pullers designed to catch the gullible and raise a good laugh at the local watering hole. Humans do love their stories. They also love to pull pranks. Hoaxes are an ancient art and craft. P.T. Barnum exhibited the Feejee Mermaid as “proof” that the mythical sea creature actually exists. (It was the top half of a monkey sewn onto the bottom half of a fish.) Maybe that was part of the inspiration for the notorious and persistent tale of the jackalope. This North American classic purports to be a cross between a pygmy deer and a jackrabbit. It’s quite straightforward: a jackrabbit with antlers. Images of it show up all over the continent, particularly in the mountain West. According to the lore, it’s vanishingly rare; it only mates during electrical storms. It has superpowers: for example, it can catch bullets in its teeth. And it can sing. Just ask a cowboy who has harmonized with it around a campfire.  It’s a joyous hoax, a myth with a wink. Apparently it originated in Douglas, Wyoming in 1934, when taxidermist Ralph Herrick and his brother Doug attached a set of deer antlers to the preserved carcass of a jackrabbit.  What started as a couple of guys having some fun on the job turned into a huge thing. The brothers founded a cottage industry, turning out whole lines of taxidermied jackalopes. The town of Douglas embraced it; it became their signature attraction. To this day, they’re issuing jackalope hunting licenses by the thousands, and jackalope postcards are a staple of roadside rest stops all across the West. Eventually, the whole of Wyoming embraced it, and it’s become a symbol of the state. That’s not all there is to the story. It turns out the jackalope is not entirely, or exactly, mythical. There is a disease that afflicts rabbits, that causes hard, hornlike growths on their heads. It’s called the Shope papilloma virus, and it’s a real thing. There’s even a specimen in the Smithsonian.  The same can’t be said of one of my favorite cryptic cryptids, the mighty Squonk. This is the diametrical opposite of the Jackalope for looks and personality. It’s an older tale, concocted, it’s said, in the nineteenth century and recorded in a Very Serious Tome published in 1910, William T. Cox’s Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts—because what’s a Very Serious Tome without a Rather Long and Compendious Title? The Squonk, according to Mr. Cox, was once widely dispersed throughout the continent, but its range has shrunk to the hemlock forests of northern Pennsylvania, in and around the Poconos. It’s fearfully ugly, piglike in shape and size, with a loose, wrinkled, warty skin. It spends its life in hiding, weeping over its own ugliness.  Hunters, we’re told, have managed to capture it, but once confined, it melts into a puddle of tears. Which is one way to explain why there’s no physical evidence. Stuff it into a bag and all you’re left with is a damp spot and a sense of the futility of it all. That’s magnificent in its lugubrious way. Who wouldn’t love a creature so perfect for what it is, with such a wonderfully evocative name? Squonk. Say it with me. Squonk. I’ll close this gallery with one last wonder of the world. It’s a mouse. A mouse that howls like a wolf. That hunts scorpions, and smites off their tails, and laughs at their venom. It howls as it hunts them and sings as it kills them, and it eats them for breakfast. I’m not making this one up. It’s called the grasshopper mouse. It lives in the deserts of southwestern North America. It’s an honest for real carnivorous mouse that howls at the moon, and it really is resistant to the venom of the Arizona bark scorpion, which can kill a human.  Watch the video. It’s wild. You might even say legendary.  No wonder cryptozoologists keep their hopes alive, with creatures like the grasshopper mouse to show us how truly amazing this planet can be.[end-mark] The post A Microgallery of Pull-Your-Leg Cryptids appeared first on Reactor.