In the News, October 14th, 2008

California Fires Return
Three major wildfires are raging in suburban Los Angeles and northern San Diego County in Southern California. They have charred nearly 12,000 acres, destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate neighborhoods in .



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Can We Help Gwen Beberg?

More than 10,000 people have signed an online petition urging the Army to let an Iraqi puppy come home with a Minnesota soldier, who fears that "Ratchet" could be killed if left behind.
Beberg, 28, is scheduled to return to the U.S. next month.

"I just want my puppy home," Sgt. Gwen Beberg of Minneapolis wrote to her mother in an e-mail Sunday from Iraq, soon after she was separated from the dog following a transfer. "I miss my dog horribly." Beberg, 28, is scheduled to return to the U.S. next month.

"I just want my puppy home," Sgt. Gwen Beberg of Minneapolis wrote to her mother in an e-mail Sunday from Iraq, soon after she was separated from the dog following a transfer. "I miss my dog horribly."

Ratchet's defenders are ratcheting up their efforts to save him. On Monday, the program coordinator for Operation Baghdad Pups, which is run by Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International, left for a trip to the Middle East to try to get the puppy to the U.S.

Operation Baghdad Pups began with an email received on September 11, 2007. The desperate words of the U.S. soldier serving in Iraq told of his desire to get the dog, Charlie, he and his regiment had befriended out of the Middle East before their tour of duty ended. Because it is against regulations for troops to befriend an animal or transport one on a military flight, the likelihood of the determined soldiers succeeding alone seemed doubtful.
Defense Department rules prohibit soldiers in the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq, from adopting pets, but exceptions have been made. Operation Baghdad Pups says it has gotten 50 dogs and six cats transferred to the U.S. in the last eight months.


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Polar Bear in a Moat of Trouble

A polar bear at the Milwaukee County Zoo has fallen out of the exhibit area and is walking around a moat. The bear, Zero weighs 1,500 to 1,600 pounds and stands about 12 feet tall.

Zero was playing with a toy when he fell over into a net. The net had been placed there in case a bear ever fell into the moat. A crew lowered the net, allowing Zero to walk around the floor of the moat.

Zoo officials said there are stairs down there so the bear can go back up. They said he might stay there four or five days -- until he's hungry.