RSN: Garrison Keillor | Expect Goodness, and Ye Shall Find It

12 July 17 PM It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News “IF I HAD MORE, I WOULD GIVE MORE” - I just made a $50 donation to augment my small monthly sustaining donations. The one-time donation is to thank you for working so hard to keep being the best source of rational, pertinent, news in-depth I've found. If I had more, I would give more, because RSN is very important to me. / Julia, RSN Reader-Supporter Sure, I'll make a donation!

Garrison Keillor | Expect Goodness, and Ye Shall Find It 

Garrison Keillor, The Washington Post
Keillor writes: "The beautiful thing about New York is not that it confers success, but that it teaches civility."
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Senate Begins Confirmation Hearings for Trump FBI Pick Tied to Torture, Gitmo
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Goodman reports: "The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a confirmation hearing today for FBI director nominee Christopher Wray. Wray served as assistant attorney general under George W. Bush from 2003 to 2005, at a time when the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel signed off on the use of torture against detainees in CIA and military custody."
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Twitter Users Sue Donald Trump for Blocking Them Over Critical Comments
Julia Carrie Wong, Guardian UK
Wong writes: "A group of Twitter users has sued Donald Trump and two White House communication aides for violating their constitutional rights by blocking them from Trump's personal Twitter account after they criticized the president."
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Congressman Steve King Wants to Use Funds First From Planned Parenthood and Food Stamps to Pay for Trump's Wall
Aaron Rupar, ThinkProgress
Rupar writes: "During a CNN interview Wednesday morning, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said he'd like to slash food assistance for low-income Americans and Planned Parenthood funding to free up money for President Trump's border wall."
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How Social Media Saved the Left
Ben Tarnoff, Guardian UK
Tarnoff writes: "Forget the idea that Twitter and Facebook are bad for democracy. Bubbles can be beneficial, and help emerging movements unite against the elites."
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Turkey Issues Detention Orders for 34 State-Owned TV Staff
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Turkey issued detention warrants on Wednesday for 34 former staff of state-owned broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, TRT, state media said."
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Oil Spills Can Disrupt Entire Aquatic Food Web, New Study Shows
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch
Chow writes: "From dead fish to beaches covered in sludge, the immediate damage from an oil spill is easy to see. But a new study, published this week in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (AECT), found that the damage caused by these spills are much wider in scope and can indirectly disrupt the entire aquatic food web."
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RSN: "A Uniquely American Tragedy": The Staggering Myths About Gun Control, Top 5 Green Energy Good News Stories Today

Interesting article below by Juan Cole about CLEAN ENERGY.

The rest of the world is moving forward while the US would be/should be leading....except for the Party of Dinosaurs and the likes of the Dirty Energy Koch Brothers' obstruction. 

Let's remember that Massachusetts Tea Bagger Guv Charlie Baker opposed Cape Wind. 

Importing Hydro Power is not a solution! 

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"A Uniquely American Tragedy": The Staggering Myths About Gun Control

Dennis A. Henigan, Salon
Henigan writes: "Across all those high-income nations, the United States accounts for more than 90 percent of the gun deaths of children under fifteen years of age. President George W. Bush, of all people, once noted that an American teenager is more likely to die from a gunshot than from all natural causes of death combined. God bless America. Particularly her children."
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Two Bombings in Baghdad Shopping Districts Kill at Least 130
Daniel Politi, Slate
Politi writes: "The death toll from the two bombings that hit Baghdad overnight Saturday has increased to at least 130 people as 125 were killed in central Baghdad, according to Iraqi police. At least 25 children were killed in the blasts."
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Kansas Rebellion: Bipartisan Revolt Against Governor Brownback
Rod Kackley, PJ Media
Kackley writes: "Jeff Blackwood has had enough of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's economic policies that included across-the-board tax cuts. Blackwood, the founder of the Kansas City healthcare technology firm Pathfinder Health Innovations, announced on the company's blog June 13 that he's moving to Missouri."
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Few News Providers Will Now Be Liking Facebook
John Naughton, Guardian UK
Naughton writes: "Winston Churchill famously defined 'appeasement' as 'being nice to a crocodile in the hope that he will eat you last'. By that definition, many of the world's biggest news publishing organizations have been in the appeasement business for at least the past two years and the crocodile to which they have been sucking up is Facebook, the social networking giant."
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Border Patrol Rules Four Shootings Justified
Rob O'Dell, The Arizona Republic
O'Dell writes: "U.S. Customs and Border Protection released decisions in the first four use-of-force cases examined by a new review board formed to look into agent shootings and force incidents that lead to serious injury or death. In each of the four cases, the new review board said the agents' use of potentially deadly force was in compliance with CBP's use-of-force policy."
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Pregnant Women's Medical Care Too Often Affected by Race
Rebecca Grant, Newsweek
Grant writes: "Perhaps most distressing, racial and socio-economic factors also have a disproportionate effect on the quality of care mothers receive during childbirth. A report titled 'Discrimination and Racial Disparities in Health' from the Harvard School of Public Health found that bias, prejudice and stereotyping by health care providers contribute to delivering lower-quality care-affecting how mothers are treated during childbirth and the outcomes."
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Juan Cole | Top 5 Green Energy Good News Stories Today
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "China now plans to get between 1/4 and 1/3 of it electricity from wind turbines by 2030. Although 2030 sounds far away, it is as near to us as 2002 - the year that Nelly complained 'It's getting hot in her' [that's not a typo] and Pink wanted to 'Get this Party Started,' and Condi Rice warned on Iraq that we didn't want the smoking gun on its alleged WMD to be a mushroom cloud."
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Turbines of the new Burbo Bank offshore wind farm appear in Liverpool, England. 

(photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

olar power is poised to grow 6-fold by 2030 and could constitute between 9% and 13% of world electricity production by then. Price per kilowatt hour for solar is plummeting, so that it is on the verge of being the cheapest form of energy, outstripping coal in that regard.

In fact, the United Arab Emirates has just accepted a bid from Masdar to build a solar electricity generating farm for 2.99¢/kWh. Coal is typically 5 cents a kilowatt hour, and this is less. Coal, game over.

China now plans to get between 1/4 and 1/3 of it electricity from wind turbines by 2030. Although 2030 sounds far away, it is as near to us as 2002– the year that Nelly complained ‘It’s getting hot in her’ [that’s not a typo) and Pink wanted to ‘Get this Party Started,’ and Condi Rice warned on Iraq that we didn’t want the smoking gun on its alleged WMD to be a mushroom cloud. China currently gets 70% of its electricity from coal, which is very, very bad for the earth and for our children and grandchildren. But this goal shows the PolitBuro is extremely serious about abandoning coal. Last year China reached 145 gigawatts of wind energy capacity. Coal is dead man walking.

The world’s largest wind turbine is being built for an offshore facility in Europe. This single tower can provide electricity to 10,000 homes.

Solar is now the fastest-growing new energy business in India. India now has 7.5 gigawatts of solar power and put in 2.2 gigawatts so far just this year. The World Bank is lending India $1 bn. for solar projects.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/37801-top-5-green-energy-good-news-stories-today

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Social Media

A few years ago, a political activist shared with me that 'we don't yet fully understand social media.' 

We didn't know how to use it, its power and impact to share FACTS as we have lost our FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 

US Media has been overtaken by Big Corporations filling the airways with censored propaganda, convincing Americans to support another MARCH TO WAR like sheep, enriching the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex. 

And yet.....talk to young people. 
They recognize that their news is censored....and DARN! 

They are so well-informed, we should be rightly proud of this generation! 
They helped display the ARMED WHITE DOMESTIC TERRORISTS for what they are! 

BRAVO! 

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FOCUS | Armed, Pathetic and Hungry: How the Oregon Militants' Revolutionary Plan Went Sideways

Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone
Dickinson writes: "The armed standoff in remote southeast Oregon, where white militants led by the Bundy clan have taken over federal buildings at a wildlife refuge, isn't going according to plan."
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The "Y'all Qaeda" militia is short on people, supplies and food

he armed standoff in remote southeast Oregon, where white militants led by the Bundy clan have taken over federal buildings at a wildlife refuge, isn't going according to plan.

The would-be insurrectionists are undermanned, undersupplied and exhausted. They've been unable to provoke the confrontation with federal agents that they chest-thumpingly declared themselves willing to die in. And they've found themselves roundly mocked on social media as "Yee-hawdists" in the service of "Y'all Qaeda," "Yokel Haram" or "Vanilla ISIS."

Taking up arms against the federal government is no laughing matter, of course. And if the militants were black, brown or Muslim, they'd likely be dead by now. But for a group of heavily armed Christian white dudes play-acting at revolution, things could hardly be going worse.

On Monday night, in fact, one Bundy brother told Oregon Public Broadcasting the militiamen might be willing to move along now — if the community requests it: "This is their county – we can't be here and force this on them," Ryan Bundy said. "If they don't want to retrieve their rights, and if the county people tell us to leave, we'll leave."

How did the Bundy plan for revolution go sideways? The troubled evolution of the plot can be traced via Ammon Bundy's social media presence.

December 29

The grand scheme to take a "hard stand" against federal "tyranny" took shape in the days after Christmas. In a video posted December 29, Ammon Bundy, son of the infamous deadbeat rancher Cliven, decried the "tremendous abuses" faced by a pair of Oregon cattlemen convicted of arson by the federal government. "We have to say that either we're OK with these gross, blatant violations of the constitution… or we make a stand," Bundy declared.

That's when Bundy, fighting tears, issued a call to action to his family's militant, anti-government supporters: "I'm asking you — and you know who you are: You that came, and you that felt to come, to the Bundy Ranch — I'm asking you to come to Burns [Oregon] on January 2, to make a stand."

December 31

Almost from the beginning, there were warning signs that this plot wasn't gelling, because of internal strife in the "patriot" community. In his next video, posted on New Year's Eve, a nervous looking Ammon Bundy calls out to militia members across the country. He pleads with them to flout the orders of militia leaders who, he reveals, had been calling for a "stand down" — instead of a standoff — in Oregon.

Looking into the camera lens, Bundy says: "I am wanting to talk to the individual, to the patriot. This is not the time to stand down," he says, "It's time to stand up. And come to Harney County. We need your help. And we're asking for it. No matter what your leader says… you need to get to Burns on the 2nd."

January 2

Bundy did find followers, including men like John Ritzheimer, the Arizona man who organized the gun-toting protest of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix last October. Ritzheimer ventured to Oregon and declared himself, in a goodbye video to his family, "100 percent willing to lay my life down to fight against tyranny in this country."

Seizing an unoccupied federal complex wasn't the tricky part. Following a demonstration on the streets of Burns on Saturday, January 2, the Bundy militiamen drove 30 miles south to execute their takeover of the compound at the federal Malheur National Wildlife Refuge — which was closed for the weekend, and to which somehow they had obtained a full set of keys.

The Malheur complex has more than half a dozen buildings, and one, major strategic asset for men with guns: a massive fire-watch tower, easily converted for use by snipers.

In the immediate aftermath of the Saturday takeover, Bundy talked a big game: "We're planning on staying here for years, absolutely," he said. "This is not a decision we've made at the last minute."

The militants also told reporters that their numbers were legion — as many as 150. Oddly, however, Bundy also issued a call for backup: "Those who... feel the need to stand, we're asking them to come. We have a facility that we can house them in. We need you to come and be unified with us so we can be protected," he said.

January 3

By light of day it becomes clear the militants' manpower was greatly exaggerated: Credible estimates from visitors to the complex put their number at fewer than two dozen, and perhaps as low as 15 men. And this skeleton crew is clearly struggling to secure the sprawling complex in the bitter cold of the Oregon high desert, where temperatures drop into the single digits at night.

By Sunday night a visibly exhausted Ammon Bundy made a new call for reinforcement, invoking his divine inspiration: "I know that what we did is right. I know the Lord is involved, and I know that we're going to see great things come from this," Bundy said. "But we need you. We need you," he pleaded. "We have a group of wonderful people here that are strong. We've got good numbers. But there is a lot to do, and we will eventually get tired if we do not have help. We also need more of a defense. Need to make sure that there is enough people here that nobody comes down upon us — and that is a very real reality right now. So we need you to come and we need you be part of this."

January 4

The militant's preparedness for an as-long-as-it-takes standoff was similarly laughable. By Monday, it was clear the militants were under-resourced, and hungry. Supporters put out a call online to send "supplies and snacks."

Another self-described "patriot," Maureen Peltier, took to Facebook with a laundry list of desired supplies, including foil, hygiene needs and locks, and provided an address where supporters can send them.

Ironically, the same folks who are seeking a local overthrow of the federal government still seem to have confidence the government will deliver their mail.

As the standoff has dragged on, the federal government seems content to let the militants freeze in isolation — and tire of their make-believe revolution.

Even once-reliably anti-government Republicans are turning their backs: Ted Cruz, who once sympathized with Cliven Bundy's stand against the Obama administration's "jackboot authoritarianism," has called on Bundy's sons to "stand down."

The Harney County Sheriff released a statement saying flatly: "It's time for you to leave our community."

Even the wife of one of the two local ranchers — for whose honor and justice the militants claim to be ready to lay down their lives — has been throwing shade: "I don't really know the purpose of the guys who are out there," she told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Where We Are Now

Instead of building the fearsome anti-government insurgency of their fever dreams, the hungry, dirty, exhausted Bundy militants are looking more and more like the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Here's hoping they have the sense to lay down their weapons before their true marksmanship is tested.

 

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/34445-focus-armed-pathetic-and-hungry-how-the-oregon-militants-revolutionary-plan-went-sideways

RSN: The US/UK Campaign to Demonize Social Media Companies as Terrorist Allies

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FOCUS: Glenn Greenwald | The US/UK Campaign to Demonize Social Media Companies as Terrorist Allies

Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept
Greenwald writes: "The irony of Her Majesty's Government blaming others for its own intelligence failures is stark indeed. This is a government that indiscriminately collects so much of the world's private communications that they literally don't know what to do with it."
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Really, Facebook?!

Beyond the information below, facebook offered a page that promoted selling a kidney to support your Gambling Addiction. Maybe Zuckerberg should re-think his morality.

Really, Facebook?!

By ThinkProgress War Room on May 28, 2013

 

Grassroots Campaign Pressures Facebook Over Rape, Assault Imagery

More and more companies are dropping Facebook advertising over the social network’s refusal, heretofore, to address offensive imagery about rape and domestic violence posted by its users. More than a dozen companies have now dropped ads because of Facebook’s apparently permissive attitude toward images like this.


When asked about their policy, a Facebook spokesperson told ThinkProgress that content featuring battered women, rape, and violence falls under “poor taste” or “crude attempts at humor” and therefore does not violate its policies.

Meanwhile, just this weekend Facebook rejected an ad aimed at debunking the false claim that abortion leads to breast cancer because the ad featured the image of a breast. Facebook claimed the educational ad violated a ban on “adult products.”

The ad boycott has been gaining steam as a result of a grassroots campaign launched last week by Women, Action & the Media, the Everyday Sexism Project and other activists. According to Women, Action & the Media, “participants sent over 60,000 tweets and 5000 emails, and our coalition has grown to over 100 women’s movement and social justice organizations.”

This is not the first time in recent weeks that Facebook has come under pressure from progressives. After Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg founded and bankrolled a political group backing immigration reform that instead spent millions of dollars on ads touting dirty energy production and the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, progressive groups launched their own ad boycott and even held a protest outside Facebook’s headquarters. Facebook further enraged activists when it then banned ads going after Zuckerberg on the issue. The Zuckerberg group, FWD.us, also came under fire from others in Silicon Valley and two of its founding members — and top funders — dropped out of the group in protest.

BOTTOM LINE: Imagery celebrating rape and domestic violence is not merely in “poor taste” or just a “crude attempt at humor.” It’s time for Facebook to get serious about addressing the offensive and violent imagery posted by some of its users and to learn the difference between “adult content” and educational materials.

Late Breaking Update: Just as we were about to click send, Women, Action & the Media announced an agreement with Facebook:

Facebook addressed our concerns and committed to evaluating and updating its policies, guidelines and practices relating to hate speech, improving training for its content moderators and increasing accountability for creators of misogynist content.
Facebook has also invited Women, Action & the Media, The Everyday Sexism Project and members of our coalition to contribute to these efforts and be part of an ongoing conversation. As part of these efforts, we will work closely with Facebook on the issue of how Community Standards around hate speech are evaluated and to ensure best practices represent the interests of our coalition.

Here’s more from Facebook:

In recent days, it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate. In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want. In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria. We have been working over the past several months to improve our systems to respond to reports of violations, but the guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards. We need to do better – and we will.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Drudge’s latest bogus scoop.
The Washington Post and sexist coverage of women leaders.
Gay soccer player became the first out male athlete to play in a major team sports league after coming out.
Former GOP senator: Republicans need to “rethink their approach as a political party.”
A part of Obamacare that’s working even though it hasn’t even gone into effect yet.
George Zimmerman’s lawyer went on national TV with inadmissible evidence in order to smear Trayvon Martin.
Here’s what it’ll take to turn Texas blue.
Big news on the housing market — and it’s good!
Justice Scalia wants innocent people to just sit in prison.

http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/really-facebook/

The Steubenville Disgrace!

There are many to blame for their disgraceful conduct in the aftermath of the Steubenville coverage, yet it highlights that many need an 'attitude' adjustment.

Below are merely 2 articles that highlight the issues --


Steubenville Rape Trial: Blogger Who Exposed Case Speaks Out After Ohio Teens Found Guilty




Two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, have been found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl at a party last August. On Sunday, the teenagers, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, were found delinquent in the sexual assault of the girl who witnesses testified was too drunk to move or speak. The case sparked a national controversy following the emergence of images and social media postings from the night of the assault. We’re joined by Alexandria Goddard, a crime blogger who first exposed crucial evidence in the case by taking screen shots of incriminating social media posts, photographs and videos, before they could be deleted. The hacker group Anonymous picked up on Goddard’s posts and released shocking video from the night of the assault. We also speak to Marc Randazza, a First Amendment lawyer who represented Goddard when she was unsuccessfully sued for defamation. "I’m convinced that if Ms. Goddard hadn’t started blogging about this and Anonymous hadn’t taken up the standard, that this case would have been swept under the rug," Randazza says. [includes rush transcript]

Domestic violence and sexual assault are issues often ignored - or even silenced. (photo: istock)

Patriarchy Dominates Media's Steubenville Coverage

By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News

19 March 13

n an eerie bit of foreshadowing, a 2011 skit from The Onion's "Sportsdome" on Comedy Central predicted the Steubenville rape story almost to a T. In the satirical sports segment, done with emotional background music, reporters document the story of a student athlete who scored a record amount of points, "overcoming" the fact that he had raped someone the night before. The framing of the news segment is not about the irreparable damage to the victim, but how the young man courageously moved beyond four allegations of sexual assault to become a top scholar and athlete.

The Generosity of Strangers

The compassion, generosity and simple goodness of strangers deserves notice to those who were there.

The power of 'social media' has been greatly underestimated.

Buck, Horrifically Injured 'Dog Who Wouldn't Die,' Recovers Thanks To Facebook Campaign (PHOTOS, VIDEO)






Thanks to the residents of a Texas city and a Facebook campaign that has gone viral, an abused dog who was was left for dead in a garbage bag has been given a new chance at life.

The pooch, who has since been named "Buck," was reportedly found on Jan. 5, after a local resident of Conroe, Tex., noticed that a garbage bag left on the side of the road and "tied to a t-post of a fence" was moving. He tore the bag open and was shocked to find the 3-year-old mixed breed, covered in blood and weakened by the cold, inside.
(Buck at the vet. Photo credit: Facebook/Bucks for Buck)

According to the Montgomery County Police Reporter, the dog had been shot in the head and face with a pellet gun. He had also been left outside for a long time, exposed to the winter air for at least 10 hours. When the pup emerged from the bag, he reportedly could only take a few steps before collapsing.

Unable to reach animal control, the man who found Buck called his neighbor Tami Augustyn, a local animal lover known for rescuing animals in distress. Augustyn immediately rushed to the scene and brought the injured dog to a veterinary emergency clinic, where vets began treating Buck for multiple pellet wounds and hypothermia. The dog had also suffered damage to his eyes, and doctors fear that he may be permanently blind.

"Dogs love unconditionally. You'll never find anyone or anything that loves you like a dog. Why would you injure something like that? I don't understand," Augustyn said of Buck's horrific injuries.
Wanting to help Buck get well, but unable to cover the hefty medical bill, Augustyn took to Facebook to appeal for help.

The response, she says, has been astounding.

Augustyn's page, "Buck Needs Bucks for his Buckshot Injuries," has been liked over 18,000 times since it was first launched this weekend -- and according to the NY Daily News, Augustyn has already raised more than $10,000 for the dog's medical care.


"The last 24 hours [have] been overwhelming for me. I have gone from not knowing if I would have enough money to pay for Buck's emergency bill to having an unbelievable amount of money to provide THE BEST care possible for Buck's recovery," Augustyn wrote on the Facebook page early Tuesday, adding that she not only has enough money to cover the dog's emergency clinic bill but also to pay for an appointment with an ophthalmologist who could determine whether there are options for surgery.

Augustyn seen here with a recovering Buck. Photo credit: Facebook/Bucks for Buck

"Your generosity has been AWESOME and if it weren't for each and every one of YOU, Buck would not have a 2nd chance at love," Augustyn wrote in an earlier post.

According to the NY Daily News, Augustyn will be keeping Buck as one of the family and says she plans on using any extra money raised in the Facebook campaign to create "The Buck Foundation," an organization that will focus on helping abused dogs.

As for Buck, dubbed the "dog who wouldn't die" by the Daily Mail, he has miraculously begun walking again and appears to have bonded with his new owner.

Unfortunately, those responsible for Buck's injuries have yet to be caught. As Yahoo! News notes, police in Montgomery County say that they are still investigating the incident.

http://main.aol.com/2013/01/08/dog-shot-in-face-survives-tami-augustyn-facebook_n_2448525.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false