Eideard

Vietnamese authorities are on alert for animal smugglers after four bags of deadly snakes were found on a train from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, according to local press reports.

The bags contained an undetermined number of snakes including some king cobras, the on-line news service VnExpress reported.

A guard and a conductor found them while inspecting the train when it made a stop at Quang Ngai railway station on Thursday, the website reported. The guard and conductor were not injured.

Passengers panicked when they heard about the snakes…NSS

The snakes, which are protected by law in Vietnam, were handed over to the Quang Ngai forest protection agency on Friday and released into the wild…

The king cobra is the world’s longest venomous snake with a length up to 13 feet according to New York’s Bronx Zoo…

I could tell you how far away to stay from a cobra to be safe – but, I doubt if most of you need that particular information as part of your skill set.

While buying groceries at the A&V Lopez supermarket this week, Rosie Orozco also spent 79 cents on something to put them in: a reusable bag emblazoned “Keep Texas Green.”

Ms. Orozco’s collection of tote bags stems from a recent ordinance in Brownsville, one of Texas’ poorest big cities: a ban on plastic checkout bags in virtually all businesses. The policy, which took effect in January, has eliminated more than 350,000 bags per day, according to Mayor Pat Ahumada, who said in an e-mail that it has “transformed our city from littered and dirty to a much cleaner city.”

Two other Texas communities, Fort Stockton and South Padre Island, have also approved bans on plastic bags, which will take effect in September and January, respectively. Several large cities, including Laredo and El Paso, have previously considered bans, and even the small town of Poteet, south of San Antonio, plans to assess its bag-banning options…

Legislation being considered by state lawmakers would encourage shoppers to recycle plastic bags by requiring large retailers like Walmart to place bag recycling bins prominently in their stores. It would also pre-empt local ordinances, however, and that worries advocates of bag bans who fear that it could derail local policies already in existence or under consideration…

Walmart has backed Mr. Fraser’s legislation, which it sees as more workable than all-out bans.

“Walmart is committed to reducing its plastic bag waste, but we would rather see voluntary programs to reduce plastic bag use” instead of stricter policies like Brownsville’s, said Daniel Morales, a company spokesman in Texas…

Rose Timmer, executive director of Healthy Communities of Brownsville, which pushed for the ban, said tourists had called plastic bags “Texas wildflowers.”

Living in New Mexico which won’t even consider requiring recyclable bottles for booze and soda – I don’t see much chance of ever getting a statewide ordnance banning plastic bags. Our politicians would like to see as much oil consumed by the public as possible – cars, trucks, plastics bags – it’s all OK with the Roundhouse.

The funny thing is that the bottle bill we passed through the Connecticut State Assembly when I lived in the Constitution State – was pressed forward by a Republican conservationist. Remember those?

Two TSA agents were busted Wednesday at Kennedy Airport for stealing $39,000 from a passenger’s bag, a law enforcement source said. The rogue agents, Coumar Persad and Davon Webb, have admitted to other thefts of up to $160,000, the source said…

They were charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property and official misconduct.

The source said the agents worked in tandem. One would watch for money as the bags were screened, then notify the other about the loot. One would swipe the money once the luggage was placed in a baggage room.

Ain’t criminal teamwork inspiring? Especially within a system that is supposed to be dedicated to protection.

Body Bag shipment

Health Canada has apologized for sending more than two dozen body bags to a Manitoba First Nation in preparation for a possible swine flu outbreak.

“We regret the alarm that this incident has caused,” said a statement issued late Thursday afternoon. “It is important to remember that our nurses are focused entirely on providing primary health-care services under often-trying circumstances.”

But the apology only cites the bags sent to the Wasagamack First Nation. Manitoba First Nations chiefs said the bags — which arrived this week with a shipment of hand sanitizers and face masks — also arrived in God’s River First Nation.

Earlier Thursday afternoon, Jim Wolfe, director of First Nations and Inuit Health for Manitoba, issued his own apology and took the blame.

He said his department regrets the alarm the shipment has caused in those communities, which were hard hit by the H1N1 flu virus in the spring. Wolfe said the apology goes out to all First Nations in the country, not just those who received the bags.

He said their remote geography was part of the reason he asked nursing stations in those communities to stock up for the winter.

Usually, shipments deliver enough supplies to nursing stations to last for six weeks, he said, adding that this time they shipped a lot more…

“Given the unknown events that we may facing in the fall, we asked our nursing stations to stock up for three to four months. And unfortunately in this case we overestimated our requirements and that unfortunately caused the alarm we are seeing now,” Wolfe said…

“Is the body bags a statement from Canada that we as First Nations are on our own?” Wasagamack Chief Jerry Knott asked.

He flew to Winnipeg with the bags on Wednesday and took them to the Health Canada building on York Avenue. The office was closed at the time, so he stacked the bags on the doorstep and marked them “Return to Sender.”

Seems like a pretty clear comment to me. Some of the suits running Health Canada haven’t a clue about life outside their gridlocked urban reservations.