The U.S. government on Thursday closed almost all of the ocean off the West Coast to salmon fishing, clearing the way for governors of states hard hit by years of declining catches to seek federal relief aid for losses estimated at $290 million

a video in which an apparent North Carolina state trooper strings up his canine partner by the legs and kicks and yells at the dog, apparently as a twisted form of "discipline." *PETITION*

The Humane Society of the United States says almost half of battered women delay leaving an abusive situation because they worry about what will happen to pets that are left behind. Pets in Crisis, a program run in cooperation with the Wichita YWCA's